THE LIFE OF JESUS AND LIFE IN THE SON
[p. 117] THE LIFE OF JESUS AND LIFE IN THE SON
John 1:4; Genesis 40:9 - 13; Numbers 17:6 - 8; 2 Corinthians 1:18 - 22
I have it laid on me, I hope by the Lord, to speak a little word about life. I need not say it is a subject of wide bearing, whether we look at it in natural things, in the physical creation, or the spiritual realm. There is hardly a subject more extensive, so that one has only one or two features of it in one’s mind to present, beginning with the passage in John, which gives us in a brief sentence the thought of all life. Life must have a source; it is not a development, as this passage shows. It came in perfect in Christ: “In him was life”. It does not say here, ‘In Him is life’, although that of course is true; it is what was in Him, so that we have to trace backwards instead of forwards. If we are to understand life as presented here in perfection we are obliged to investigate backwards: “In him was life”. We know that life is in Him. The life that we have by the Spirit on the principle of faith now and shall enjoy for ever is in Him, but we have the statement here, “In him was life”. And so He has expressed it; and I had in mind to speak of the expression of it — first, as He was here in the flesh, and then as He is, as risen from among the dead. No one can read the opening chapters of Genesis without being impressed with the thought of life, not only because it is essential to human existence here on earth, but because it brings in what pleases God.
Unless a thing pleases God it is of no moral value, and I have chosen this passage from Genesis 40 believing that it foreshadowed the expression of life in a flesh-and-blood condition, which pleased God — a life that was for God. The chief baker, of whom I [p. 118] did not read, presents what was not for God. It was primarily intended for God. The white bread in the baskets and the baked meats or victuals were for Pharaoh — for God typically, but the birds of the air got them.
Now, that may seem a peculiar reference, but one is reminded of young persons starting out in life, as we speak, and the inquiry that comes into one’s mind with regard to them is whether their lives are to be for God or for men; whether those sweetmeats on the top (for the best is on the top) are for God, or whether the birds of the air are going to have them. They are about in great numbers — vultures, ready to snap up everything that might be for God. The Lord met a young man, as you will remember, and in His conversation with him He looked on him and He loved him. I suppose that the young man, in the energy and freshness of life, reminded the Lord of the divine thought. He would have had that young man; He desired to have him for God, but He did not have him. What was lovable in that young man went to the birds, from what Scripture tells us, for he went away from Jesus. Satan got that young man, obviously; he went away from Jesus.
So, as I said, the birds got the fine food the baker had on his head in the three baskets. I have no doubt he illustrates man as set up here, furnished with much intended to be for God, but Satan got him, and so he was hanged upon a tree; whereas the butler is, I believe, set forth to represent the Lord Jesus — the life that expressed itself in Him as a Man in this world.
The vine is there, and the bud, the blossom, the cluster, and the grapes, and then the pressing — all for God.
It was a ‘life divine below’, (6:2) but not exactly a miraculous life, although of course we know His conception was miraculous, but that is not for the public. He was born as a babe, everything in the [p. 119] life of Jesus was normal, but of course of its own kind. There was the vine, there was the bud, the blossom, and there were the grapes; and then, beloved (and let this sink into our hearts) there was the pressing of the grapes.
Such was the life that came under God’s eye in the precious life of Jesus. There was nothing to call attention to in a public way any more than a vine in a vineyard. It was normal, perfectly normal, divinely normal; but Jesus was cast upon God, as we are told, from the very outset of His being as incarnate. This could not have been said about any other babe, although marvellous things are said about babes in the Old; Testament, and I have no doubt these marvellous things all had reference in type to Jesus. Jacob took hold of his brother’s heel as a babe — a remarkable thing; he would supplant Esau. In Jesus we have, from the very outset, the expression of dependence; that was never said of a babe. It was for God, who alone understood it. The outward effects must have been there; Scripture is silent as to that. But God knew the movement of the heart of that babe, and it was delightful to Him.
Then, as we are told, He grew in wisdom and stature. Think of that being said of Jesus, the Son of God! He grew in these things — in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. What should mark every child born into this world, but was never found before, was there. As He is in the temple with the doctors, you see the perfection of maturity; He was both hearing, you will notice, and asking questions. In the prophets He says, “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned”. Isaiah 50:4. Marvellous words from Him! They are there to bring before us the perfection of His humanity. “He learned obedience”, Hebrews 5:8 we are told. Let us understand it. He is a real Man, and yet “God over all, blessed for ever”. As John says. “In the beginning was the [p. 120] Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. John 1:1. Being that, it was His to command, never to obey; but now His condition is changed, and He learns, for He says, “Mine ears hast thou digged”. Psalm 40:6. He learned obedience.
Such was the perfection, the reality of the humanity of Christ. At the age of twelve He is in the midst of the doctors. He is not criticising; He is not asserting that He is God; He is not working miracles; He is simply “hearing them and asking them questions”. Luke 2:46. An excellent model for us — for young people particularly — hearing and asking questions. The doctors “were astonished at his understanding and answers”. Doubtless they were proud of their learning. Had they learned “morning by morning” to hear from God? Were they wont “to speak a word in season to him that is weary”? Isaiah 50:4. Here was One who was learning; He was hearing and asking questions, and His understanding and answers astonished those learned doctors. Think of what that must have been to God, as He looked down on these doctors, with this holy Boy of twelve in their midst! It was all humanly and yet divinely perfect. His parents thought He was in the company, but He was not; and they return to Jerusalem and find Him. There was a great difference between the mind of heaven and the mind of her who loved Him most on earth. “Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing”, Mary said, reproachfully. It was well they sorrowed, but He says, “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” The light is beginning to shine. “Thy father”, says Mary, “and I”. He says, “my Father’s business”. Luke 2:48 - 49. What a word for Joseph! Was He about Joseph’s business? He was indeed about to take up the tools, the plane and the saw, for He was to be a carpenter. He was about to serve His reputed father in the workshop. Wonderful fact for us! But did He refer to Joseph’s business in the temple? No, beloved, it was His Father’s business, God’s business. It was something for Joseph to think over; it was an opportunity for him to learn; doubtless he did; doubtless Mary did. But then He went down and was subject after that. The light had shone in that word for Mary and Joseph, and now He goes down and is subject to them. I can understand Him saying to Joseph, ‘I am going to do business for you’, for Joseph was His reputed father, and He did. “Is not this the carpenter?” Mark 6:3 it says. One is moved as one thinks of the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, the Creator and Upholder of everything in the universe, taking a plane, or a saw, or a chisel, and working. These are facts of Scripture, and they are to be taken into our hearts, that He was a real Man; and whilst here about His Father’s business, yet He worked with His reputed father, Joseph, as a carpenter. Then the veil drops in His wonderful history for eighteen years. What happened in those eighteen years we might well think over. I mean we might read, as we are entitled to by the Spirit, between the lines. What a life it must have been as He toiled as a carpenter! He had grown up before God “as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground”, Isaiah 53:2 full of sap, more than in all the cedars. The cedars of Lebanon are full of sap. “In him was life”; life was there. In that outward lowliness and obscurity, life was there. And now as they were all baptised He was baptised, the last, and the heavens proclaimed Him. The heavens proclaimed their estimate of all that He is. He was the “Vine”. There were the buds, the blossom, and the cluster, as I said, and the grapes; everything was normal; they were all there in the life of Jesus. Let us understand it. The butler pressed the grapes into “Pharaoh’s cup”. The Lord Jesus, in all this, thought of God, the cup was Pharaoh’s cup. As I may say, He held the cup in [p. 122] His hand, and all His precious life was, as it were, poured into it for God. It was for God, and in His death it was pressed — that precious life was pressed out of Him, so to speak.
Those drops of sweat as of blood that flowed from Him in Gethsemane were precious to God. They were the expression of a Man’s exercise as under the pressure of Satan — Satan bringing death to bear upon Him. Satan had come back with all his power, and would have pressed upon Him the weight of death, which was in the cup the Father was giving to Him. He was going to drink that; but, as I might say, He had the cup in His hand, and that holy precious life of His was to be poured out into it; it was for God. I suppose Jesus was never more precious, if one may use comparisons; He was never more precious than when He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It was infinite perfection in Man, and Man bearing the full weight of divine wrath. It was pressed out there for God. Who can speak adequately of it? But it is for us to feed upon.
Well now, I wanted to go on to the passage in Numbers, because it gives us another view of life. This time it is a question of combating man’s will; that is not what the vine refers to. It is now a question of combating the will of man as risen up in opposition to God in the band of Korah. We are beset, dear brethren, all round with this will of man; men by training and education asserting a right to priesthood because they are Levites. There are thousands and thousands of men in the ‘cloth’ in Christendom who claim to be Levites, and claim priesthood because they are Levites, and they have to be tested; they have to be met. It is not so much what the life is for God, but what it is in testimony against evil. Hence there are twelve rods, representing all, we might say; and they are laid up before the Lord. It says, “Aaron’s rod was among them”. It is a challenge, you see, that Aaron’s rod has no advantage.
Now we have not what is normal, as I have been dwelling on, but what is, I might say, miraculous; a bare rod or staff bears fruit overnight. The wonderful fact is that the Son of God has lain in death, as it says, “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”. Matthew 12:40. Aaron’s rod was among them — among the others; the Son of God was among the dead. He actually died, and was buried. What a time of exercise Moses and Aaron must have had during the night! In the morning Aaron’s rod had budded, bloomed blossoms, and ripened almonds. God had dealt effectively with the spirit of rebellion in the swallowing up of these wicked men who had rebelled against their leaders. Yet the flesh was there, and they would be concerned as awaiting the result of the test. The disciples of Jesus also had deep exercise as He lay in death. But the answer was to come, and the answer was in the Son of God declaring Himself. He is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection”. Romans 1:4. He is known thus to faith.
I want you to particularly follow what I am saying in this, because it is the secret of withstanding the will of man in religious things. John’s gospel comes in to establish our souls in the faith of the Son of God. It is a question of life, but it is life on the principle of faith. So John’s gospel is that His disciples might believe on Him. They were disciples before, but they needed to be established in the light of the Son of God. Hence John says, “This beginning of signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed on him”. Then at the end, after all the signs but one are recorded, he says, “Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book”, John 20:30.
[p. 124] There was abundance more of evidence if necessary, but there was nothing more needed for faith. All you want is a witness, and John’s signs afforded adequate witness of the resurrection. So he says, “These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name”. John 20:31.
What I am speaking about is the secret of contending with the will of the flesh in religious things. How can we withstand it? Only by the faith of the Son of God. “Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God”. 1 John 5:5. God would have that light in our souls. We hold life now in His name, but then we get the evidence of it while here. It was a dry stick laid among the others. It had “budded”. I was speaking of this as miraculous — it is miraculous. I suppose the Lord’s resurrection and appearance to His disciples was the greatest sign. Peter, John and Mary had gone to the sepulchre and found it empty — Peter went into the sepulchre, and he saw the linen clothes, “and the napkin that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself”. John 20:7. There was unquestionable evidence that the Son of God had risen. Everything was in order, there was not a struggle, for as the Son of God enters into the conflict with death there can be only one result. “What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?” Psalm 114:5. Death was to be out of sight as the feet of the priests touched the waters, although Jordan overflowed its banks. So John says, “This is the disciple which testifieth of these things; ... and we know that his testimony is true”. John 21:24. We know his testimony is true. It was a miracle, it was the Son of God asserting His power. He is declared to be the Son of God with power by resurrection from among the dead. So that now we have life in another form: it is not [p. 125] now a vine, it is now an almond. We know from the book of Jeremiah what the almond signifies. God says, “I am watchful over my word to perform it”. Jeremiah 1:12. It we want things finally effected it must be on this line, not on the life of Jesus on earth. It is the life of the Son of God now as He is risen from among the dead. So it says in verse 8, “It came to pass that on the morrow ... behold the rod of Aaron, for the house of Levi, was budded”. Now it is a life established by a miracle, but it is a life perfect in its own order. Well, I dwell on this in both cases. In regard to the vine, we have the bud, we have the blossom, and the cluster, and the bunch of grapes. I mention in connection with this, with the start of budding, that young brethren and sisters must be on their guard against taking short cuts in the things of God. We must all be on our guard against it, things must be on the principle of the bud, the blossom and the fruit. They must be in that order. The idea of being ripe is a great thing for God. But I want now, in closing, to dwell on the almond, because it is in the life of Christ as He is now that you get finality. According to Jeremiah, the almond signifies that God is watchful over His word to perform it, and I give you the Scripture which I think confirms this in a remarkable way. It is where Paul says he was “an apostle according to the promise of life”. 2 Timothy 1:1. This appears in 2 Timothy, which epistle contemplates the breakdown of the church. God had promised life, and had brought it into effect. Paul was apostle in this connection. So the almond is brought out; it budded, it blossomed, and the ripened almonds were there, for the rebels. You cannot answer these rebels with mere human ability or learning; you can only answer them effectively by life, the life that is in Christ. It is a life that is outside the range of man. Jannes and Jambres in Egypt of old said, “This is the finger of God”. Exodus 8:19. Here is something they cannot touch, they cannot imitate it, it is beyond them; hence it is victory. So that God proceeds effectively to perform His word; He says, I am watchful over it to perform it. He has now, in a Man in resurrection, the life He has promised, and that Man has gone up into heaven, and given us the Spirit that we might “know”.
John writes, “That ye may know that ye have eternal life”. 1 John 5:13. The gospel of John is, “That ye might believe”, John 20:31 and as believing have it. But the epistle is, “that ye may know that ye have” 1 John 5:13 it; and knowing that we have it makes us victorious. No one can overcome us. The most learned, the most able, after the flesh, cannot stand before a man who knows that he has everlasting life. John says, “The Son of God has come”; 1 John 5:20 we know He has come, and it is “by water and blood”. 1 John 5:6. It is not the incarnation in the epistle of John. When he says He has come, it is by death, the means of cleansing, so that we should have eternal life. He is now risen, and has given us an understanding.
God would have us here on the line of the almond. Whether it be what He will do for my own soul, or whether it be what He will do through me, I can rely on the faithfulness of God. He has the life now that is irresistible — it is supreme. It is established in resurrection, it is life in the Son of God.
I read in the epistle to the Corinthians to see how God is now working out His purpose on this line. They insinuated that the great apostle was using lightness — prevaricating. No, he says, “the Son of God, ... who was preached among you by us ... was not yea and nay”. The Son of God is not yea and nay, “but yea is”, he says, “in him”. He is risen from the dead; it is the Son of God. Paul says, “we preached him”, and it is “yea” that is “in him”, “and Amen”. The “yea” is the assertion of the will of God, and the “Amen” is the complete answer to it subjectively, as I apprehend. So that He has watched over His word to perform it. The apostle says, “He that establishes us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God”. God is doing that. “Who also hath sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts”.
I only refer to that so that we might see in this life the almond, for the purpose of God is yea and amen in Christ. He is working it out in detail, and I want everyone, myself included, to lay hold of the thought of the almond. It is a life established on miracle, and it is supreme over every other power. God is watching over every one of us to perform His word in regard to us, and then to use us. There is not one of us that God would not use on the principle of this life, but not on any other. It is on the principle of the almond that God is working out His purpose in us and through us; so that, “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us”.