DECLARED TO BE SON OF GOD
[p. 357] DECLARED TO BE SON OF GOD
Romans 1:1 - 4; 2 Corinthians 1:19 - 22; Genesis 22:9 - 23; Genesis 46:1 - 8
I have in mind to speak tonight about spiritual establishment, believing that many of the Lord’s people are unestablished, and my thought is to show that establishment in a spiritual way lies in our apprehension of the Son of God. Not exactly in our acceptance of the fact that the Son is God — that is a matter of doctrine. We know as a matter of doctrine that the Second Person of the Deity became a Man, and that He was proclaimed from heaven as God’s Son, but what I want to dwell on tonight is the fact that He is to be apprehended as the Son of God, as announced in the gospel, and, as so announced, He is “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”. That is, I want to dwell on the subject of the gospel, and the subject of the gospel as announced among the nations was the Son of God, known in a man’s soul. As each of us here, doubtless, professes to believe the gospel, it becomes a challenge as to what we have believed. If we look into our spiritual history we shall be surprised — I speak from experience — at the amount of unbelief that exists. We shall be surprised to find how much of what we regard as our faith is an acceptance of historical facts. But we need more than historical facts. We need to apprehend these historical facts in their moral bearing, if they are to become light and power in our souls, and hence the declaration (not from heaven, nor even what was said to Mary, “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God”, Luke 1:35 blessed though that statement is) needs to be apprehended in its spiritual force.
[p. 358] The declaration is not an announcement from heaven. It is the bearing of the resurrection apprehended in a moral way in our souls. It is this which is announced in the gospel. Paul was separated to the gospel concerning God’s Son, “Made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”.
I wish to dwell, beloved brethren, on this great fact, in order that we may be established — in order that, like Abraham of old, we may dwell “by the oaks of Mamre”, Genesis 18:1. It is a great thing for young believers to begin by dwelling in relation to things that are stable. Many remain, even as believers, in their early history, in relation to things that are very unstable, and hence the disappointment and uncertainty that mark the histories of believers. We need to learn, from the very outset, like Abraham, to dwell in relation to things that are stable. Even before we come to a full, clear apprehension of Christ in resurrection, we must begin by apprehending things that are stable. These may appear in an experienced spiritual brother or be seen in a company of saints walking in the Spirit, but it is a matter of immense moment at the outset of our spiritual history to learn to live in relation to things that are stable — persons that stand up in relation to God and to Christ, just as Abraham dwelt by the oaks of Mamre.
I want to show you just for a moment how unstable things stand in relation to the power of the Son of God. As we look upon the history of the world, how many institutions have stood the test of time? Not one institution of man has stood the test of time — not one. The most stable institution that you may look upon today is about to be removed — it is shakeable. We, in our short histories, have seen powerful empires and powerful institutions fall, while those that seem to stand are only for a moment.
[p. 359] The great commercial system of the world is about to be shattered. Let no one think, if he lives in relation to it, that he is secure. I want to show you just for a moment, from typical reference, how these things stand in the presence of the power of the Son of God, because, whilst governmental dealings bring down many institutions, the final disposal of all the institutions of this world is in the hands of the Son of God. He has “spoiled principalities and powers”. He “made a show of them openly”, Colossians 2:15 and has led them in triumph by His cross, and so, in the typical books, you have reference to the power of the Son of God as it applies to the most stable things of this world. Samson, for example, is surrounded in the city of Gaza by the Philistines, who had decided, according to the best of their wisdom, to slay him at daybreak — an illustration of the folly of the enemy. They thought they had him in their power, and their counsel related to daybreak, but Samson lay till midnight, the moment when man is weakest, and took the doors of the gate of Gaza, bars and all, upon his shoulders, carrying them up to the hill that was before Hebron — a picture of the power of the Son of God as encircled by His enemies. Satan with all his force surrounded the Son of God, as He entered Gethsemane. One can understand the councils — victorious, as they thought — of the hosts of evil, as the Son of God entered into Gethsemane. The Lord was not indifferent to the powers He had to cope with; He knew well the extent of that power, and hence His agony in the garden. Behind it lay the cross, of which I am not now speaking, and the forsaking, but He well knew the force of that power that encircled Him in Gethsemane, yet He lay until midnight, the hour of human weakness. Christ was crucified in weakness, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. The cross presents a most remarkable picture of the power of the Son of God [p. 360] as encircled by His enemies! I see Him there, as He hung upon the cross and “cried with a loud voice” — it was the voice of the Son of God — and delivered up His spirit. Ere He rose there was a witness in that voice to the power of the Son of God. The dead shall hear that voice; all that are in the grave shall hear it, and shall come forth. And as Samson not only took the doors and the bars, but carried them up to Hebron, so there is in the resurrection of Christ, not only the overthrow of the enemy’s power, but the leading of His adversaries in triumph.
Hebron stands in Scripture for that of which I am speaking. It was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt, and represents what God had in His mind before the world was. So Samson in type sets before us the power of the Son of God through resurrection. What could the Philistines do? What can Satan do with Christ in resurrection, or against those that apprehend that Christ is risen? He can do nothing! And hence it is in the apprehension of Christ risen from the dead, “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”, that one moves on. There is a great deal of instability among the people of God, and so I dwell on the power of the Son of God in dealing with things upon which men rely, and which they regard as stable — how easily they are shattered and brought to nothing!
Now, you see, if Paul preached the Son of God he would bring in these features. In preaching the gospel Paul would not merely record historical facts about the Son of God, he would preach Him. I would like to convey some little thought to you about preaching. It is not a mere announcement of facts or of doctrine, though there must be doctrine (and facts), but preaching has a moral bearing in that it affects a man morally (and if I am not affected morally I am not affected according to God), making him say,
like the disciples, “What sort of man is this?” Matthew 8:27. And then, again, He says, “Whom say ye that I am?” Matthew 16:15. They might have answered, “The heavens proclaim You are the Son of God”, but they did not. Peter was affected morally, and answered for the rest, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Matthew 16:16. Preaching affects you morally. It is a presentation of the Son of God, declared to be such by resurrection.
Think of the import of resurrection! It is not merely a man brought back from the dead, but a man brought back in a new condition, and death overthrown. It is according to the Spirit of holiness — which is a moral thought. The outstanding idea of the presentation of the Son of God by preaching is to produce an apprehension of holiness — of an altogether new condition for men, outside the range of man naturally. It brings to light the Son of God, another kind of man, yet in relation to men, with all the power that is in Him available for men. But think of His glory! “This sickness”, He says, referring to Lazarus, “is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”. John 11:4. Think of the glory of the Son of God, in the resurrection of the dead, bringing in a new race altogether; an order of man that exists eternally, altogether suitable to God; living in the Spirit of holiness; living in power in relation to the Son of God. That is what is presented in the preaching.
How one would love to sit down and listen to Paul preaching the Son of God! He says, He “loved me”. That is not mere history. He had produced a profound moral effect in Paul. How his countenance would irradiate as he announced that he knew the Son of God loved him and gave Himself for him! He knew Him as declared to be such by resurrection. How it would affect one’s soul! I do not suppose I [p. 362] should ever forget if I once heard Paul preach, or ever lose the impression of preaching by a man in whose soul was the knowledge of the Son of God. The declaration was known in Paul’s soul. And hence he says to the Corinthians, “The Son of God who has been preached by us among you” — and not only by Paul, but Timotheus preached Him too, and so did Silvanus.
I listen to Paul and receive an impression I shall never lose, and I listen to Timotheus, also, and should get, no doubt, a reduced impression; but, nevertheless, I would gain a fresh understanding of the Son of God in a young man, for he apprehended and preached the Son of God, and so did Silvanus — a threefold cord that cannot be broken — a threefold testimony in that city of Corinth of the Son of God. What light in that city of Corinth! So he says, It was “not yea and nay”, but “yea is in him”. Paul, indeed, says, “I am in accord with my preaching”, but what he insists on is the fact that “yea” is in the Son of God. For he says, “Whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen, for glory to God by us”.
How is it, my brother and sister, in your soul? Have you an apprehension of the Son of God in your soul? If you have, you are not living only “by the oaks of Mamre” Genesis 13:18 — you begin to live in Beer-sheba. I take it that the oaks of Mamre refer to stable things — dimly seen, perhaps, but nevertheless seen. Now in chapter 22, Abraham is not only living by the oaks of Mamre — he is living in Beersheba, which means, “well of the oath”, and this suggests the immutable purpose of God. I think what I am saying will be simple to everyone here. I want you to look into it, and see where you live spiritually. What I am referring to is the suggestion to you of the value of the Old Testament — it was written for us, and I want everybody to look into this and see where [p. 363] he lives, whether in relation to unstable things, of which I have been speaking, or whether you are beginning to live in relation to stable things — things that are proving themselves to be stable. Abraham had looked at an oak, and the fierce wind blew, and the oak stood. It would remind him of the stability of what is connected with God’s world. And so I say, dear young Christians here, that you may look on your parents, some of whom have stood for fifty years against the fierce blast of Satanic power. They have stood for God; they are worth your consideration. They represent relative stability. Learn to live in relation to those who stand for God to begin with.
But I do not want you to stop there; I want you to go on to Beer-sheba. Now Beer-sheba is the “well of the oath”. There was no oath in relation to the oaks. If God swears, He swears in regard to what is immutable — “That by two immutable things we might have a strong consolation” Hebrews 6:18 — and so the swearing is in regard to Isaac, and Abraham lived in the light of that oath. He believed God; indeed, he had started with that; but now he believes in the God of resurrection. He believes typically in a risen Christ, for Isaac’s recovery was the figure of a risen Christ. I ask you, beloved, where do you live? Do you live in Beer-sheba? It is a comfortable place to live in. You will not be afraid of the north wind, of the snow, or of the frost. Winter and summer you are perfectly secure in your soul as you live there.
One dwells, with peculiar satisfaction, on the voice from heaven, saying, “Abraham, Abraham!” I understand that to mean that Abraham had arrived in the history of his soul at an ideal that corresponded with the mind of God. If God from heaven calls out your name twice you represent an ideal. God has His ideals; He has reached them all in Christ, but as [p. 364] you reach them in Christ you are taken notice of in heaven in a peculiar way. “Abraham, Abraham?” That meant that Abraham had arrived in the history of his soul at the knowledge of Christ risen from the dead. “I know that thou fearest God”, was said to him. What a moment in Abraham’s history! What light in his soul then! What a sense of heavenly favour and recognition as his name is called out twice from heaven! And so the oath, “By myself have I sworn”. It is not that God needs to swear from His own point of view, but He needs to swear from ours. He knows our poor weak hearts, and so He would have Abraham in the possession of a strong consolation, and thus he goes down and rejoins his young men, and sits down in the comfort of the light that had come into his soul, that God was a God of resurrection and that He cannot lie. How established he was!
Well now I want to show in the later verses I read, that in that position the light of the assembly comes into your soul. We cannot be in the truth of the assembly, according to God, unless we are established. We may be the subjects of care from the Lord’s people, but that is not the whole of the divine thought. We are to be in the assembly as established by the light of Christ risen from the dead, and that in Him every promise of God is yea and amen. So it is at this juncture that Abraham gets typically the light of the assembly — not yet actually as the spouse of Christ, but as the potential spouse of Christ. She is qualified according to the light that Abraham had at this particular juncture to be the spouse of Isaac. Abraham thus comes typically into the light of the assembly. He knows now that such a person as Rebekah exists. I wonder if tonight the light of the assembly is in your soul. Not yet, at the moment, what it is in its “body” and “bride” aspects, but that it exists. The assembly is existent on earth.
[p. 365] I wonder if we all have the light of the assembly in our souls. Someone told Abraham at this particular juncture about Rebekah. You see, it is not mere history. The idea of the assembly historically is known to everybody. That is not what is meant by someone telling you. Someone tells you that there is such a thing as an assembly in this world. Presently you are to understand it; and in connection with this you are stabilised by the light of the knowledge of the Son of God; you belong to it. But for the moment I am concerned with the light of the fact that it exists.
It was told Abraham at this juncture, as he nestled down under the protection of the faithfulness of God. He dwelt in Beer-sheba in the sense of the faithfulness of God. In his history there had been established a proverb, as I may say, “on the mount of Jehovah will be provided”. I can understand people saying to Abraham as he nestled there in Beer-sheba: ‘Abraham, what about the possibility of famine? What about the winter that is coming? What about the education of your children? What about the politics of the world, and how they may interfere with you?’ What would Abraham say to every such question? “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”. That was his answer, that was his psalm. It became established in Israel. It was light for every believer afterwards to nestle in. “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”. A stabilised Christian need fear none of these things — what a government may do, what men may do. “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided”. And so, whatever question arises, Abraham had that answer. He was living in Beer-sheba, in that place of security and stabilisation.
But the light of the assembly typically had also entered into his soul — someone told him of Rebekah. When that light entered Paul’s soul, he said, “I am an awful sinner”. The Lord disclosed from heaven, as Saul of Tarsus fell to the earth, that He had a body on earth. “Why persecutest thou me?” Acts 22:7, Acts 26:14. From that moment onwards Saul felt what a sinner he had been. He was not meet to be called an apostle, because he persecuted the assembly. It may be that you are persecuting the assembly. What, a Christian persecuting the assembly! Yes, a Christian persecuting the assembly — many of them do. If you persecute the saints, you persecute the assembly. As soon as the light of the assembly comes into your soul you abhor yourself for persecuting the saints. You begin to look at them now in the light of the assembly — of what is so precious in the eyes of Christ — He gave Himself for her, and you are persecuting her. Let this precious light into your soul.
I want now to go on to chapter 46. I want to show you briefly how Jacob came into this same position. You see, the parents live with their children, as Abraham did with Isaac. If we live with our children as heirs with us of the same promises, we shall surely pass on to them the light that we possess, and God will bless it. And so, in due course, Jacob comes to Beer-sheba. And what you find is that he is in the light of his father, Abraham — the light of the resurrection, and so, instead of sacrificing to the God of his father, Abraham, he sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. You see, there is now a definite recognition of Christ risen from the dead, for Isaac is ever that. Jacob was leaving Canaan outwardly. It seemed a contradiction of the promise, but it was no contradiction of the promise. The ways of God in His government perfectly correspond with His purpose — they run together. “His purpose is on the elevation of a mount, His ways are in the plains”; they are perfectly reconcilable, and Jacob understands.
If, there are those here tonight whose circumstances [p. 367] seem to be against them, I would say to you, that you are to be stabilised in these circumstances in the light of Christ risen from the dead, and in no other way. Whatever God has promised regarding you, His purpose for you is as sure as that you will be in heaven by grace. Every promise is yea in Him, so that I would say to any in this audience who may be in adverse circumstances (one knows what these are, one knows how Satan brings them to bear on our spirits to discourage and hinder us), that the answer is in Christ risen. “On the mount of Jehovah, will be provided”. Not a hair on your head shall perish, your very dust is precious to God, and so Jacob, in the majesty of faith and understanding, sacrificed to the God of his father, Isaac — in New Testament language, the God who raised Christ from the dead. And hence, we have again, “Jacob, Jacob!” He has reached the ideal in his soul. In adverse circumstances he has learned to trust God. He has taken refuge in the faithfulness of God. Although the promises seem to be, and are, in abeyance, yet Jacob knows that every one of them will be fulfilled in the risen Christ, and he is perfectly trustful.
I want to show, further, at this juncture, that the saints are taken account of by name. The sons and daughters of Jacob, and their sons and daughters in the third generation are taken account of by name. They are all taken account of one by one, in the light of the resurrection of Christ. At this juncture, further light comes into your soul. You see that not only are things secured for yourself, but every one is taken account of. Those whom you love are all taken account of one by one; they are secure in Christ. Even our departed ones — how precious is the thought that comes to us, “The dead in Christ shall rise first”. 1 Thessalonians 4:16. A flood of light comes into the soul. Every one of the saints is taken account of by name.
In chapter 37 of this book the Spirit of God says,
“These are the generations of Jacob”, Genesis 37:2 and the only one named is Joseph. The others are all lawless; they are murderers — I mean the ten brothers; and poor Benjamin has to share with them the hiding, as it were, of the face of God until they all come to the recognition of Joseph, and now Jacob is going to Joseph. They have all come to recognise Joseph, and Jacob is on his way down to Joseph, and his sons and his daughters and his sons’ daughters are all with him, and the Spirit of God takes account of every one of them. They are not now murderers, they are taken account of in a risen Christ. They belong to resurrection. It is a wonderful thing to have the light in your soul, not only of the power of the resurrection on yourself, but on all those you love, and if you are a true believer, you love all the saints. Colossian believers loved all saints; Ephesian believers loved all saints. Hence in this passage I am confronted with the thought that all saints are taken account of in the light of the resurrection of Christ. Every divine thought regarding them was sure; for whatever promises there are, are “Yea and amen” in Christ. I suppose “yea” is what we have now by the Spirit; it is enough. “Amen” is what we shall be in bodies like Christ in heaven. The complete fulfilment, literally, of every promise and every purpose of God.
And so I want to show, just for a moment, from the passage in 2 Corinthians, that God, through all this light, is establishing the saints. “He that establishes us”, says the apostle, “with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God”. God is doing that now, and it is very beautiful and commends itself to every one of us as the beloved apostle says, “He is establishing us with you”. It seems to me to fit in with Genesis 46. Not only is Jacob established, but God is establishing his whole posterity with him. They are all linked up in the same bundle of life. Jacob [p. 369] acted in the light of Christ risen. We are all bound up with Christ in resurrection, and so the apostle, in a beautiful spirit, linked himself on with the Corinthians, and he says, God establishes us with you in Christ, and anoints us. That is what God is doing. I do not apprehend that God would anoint something unestablished. It is one thing to have the Spirit, and it is another to be distinguished by the Spirit, for the anointing distinguishes you, so that you do not need any man to teach you, for the anointing by which you are anointed teaches you all things. You are greater than all the universities of the world — all the seminaries and colleges. In regard to divine things, you are independent of them; you are set up in dignity by the anointing. God is doing that. He would have His people stabilised, dignified by the Spirit, so that they are not dependent on man. They are now qualified to represent God, for anointing signifies that I represent Him here. And thus He seals us, marking us off as His own people.
The seal is the stamp upon you that you belong to God. You are His properly, and if you love Him you cherish that thought, and you would not wish to wear anything that would discredit that seal; or to be in any circumstances that would discredit it. It seems to be different to the property of God — the inheritance of God — and then He gives us the earnest of the Spirit into our heart. That is your portion. That is God’s present work, beloved, and if there is one here outside the range of that work, I would say, ‘Get into it by submitting to Christ’. Come into all this, into the sphere of divine operations where God isestablishing, as well as where He is anointing; where He is sealing believers, and where He is giving the earnest of the Spirit into our hearts.