THE ANOINTING
[p. 96] THE ANOINTING
2 Corinthians 1:21,22; 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:26,27; 1 Corinthians 12:12,13
These passages speak of a divine anointing, and no other anointing has any value. In pouring His anointing upon men, God intends to clothe them with dignity.
From the outset of God’s ways toward men, it speaks of those who were anointed. The thought extends to a period which existed before the creation of man. In the book of Ezekiel, it speaks of a creature who is without doubt Satan. It says of him that he was “the anointed cherub” (Ezekiel 28:14); but he did not keep this dignity: his heart was lifted up because of his beauty, and he fell. But God had in mind that the idea of the anointing was to be seen in Christ. However, before the Lord Jesus appeared as Man, God made use of the principle of anointing; but from the outset, Christ was before Him, for it was in Him that the moral qualities appeared which alone were worthy to be anointed. It is good to notice that, in the gospels, the Lord’s feet were anointed by the women, before His head. The anointing that took place in the house of Simon the Pharisee precedes the anointing that took place in the house of Simon the leper. His feet were qualified by a holy walk; moral qualities come to light in the walk. The Lord had trodden this earth for thirty years before being anointed by God. In saluting Him from the heavens, at His baptism, the divine voice was heard, saying, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight” Luke 3:22. God had sought what He now found. The divine eye had, so to speak, scrutinised the walk of men. David says in a Psalm, “Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou understandest [p. 97] my thought afar off; Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways” Psalm 139:2,3. He was conscious that God scrutinised his life. But in no man had God found His delight until the feet of the Lord left their blessed marks on this earth. For thirty years the life of Jesus was holy and complete devotedness. At the end of those thirty years, the Lord is found identified with the remnant. The Lord says, “It becometh us to fulfil all righteousness” Matthew 3:15. Formerly, there had been seen in men features of righteousness, but here is the One who now fulfils all righteousness down here! When He comes out of the waters of baptism He prays; and when He prays, the heavens are opened upon Him, and the divine voice is heard coming from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight” Matthew 3:17. Also, in bodily form as a dove, the Holy Spirit descends upon Him, and it is in the dignity of that anointing that He stands up in the synagogue of Nazareth. He takes the book and reads it. That book had never been read with such dignity. The passage that He read was taken from the prophet Isaiah, and was quite appropriate to the situation: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach glad tidings to the poor; he has sent me to preach to captives deliverance, and to the blind sight, to send forth the crushed delivered, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” Luke 4:18,19. In this passage we have the divine example of ministry, the anointed Vessel for preaching. We see therefore how moral qualifications in view of anointing preceded the anointing itself. In this same gospel of Luke, a certain sense of the grace that was in Jesus led a poor sinner to recognise the moral qualities of the Lord: she anointed His feet — she anointed them with myrrh. She would refresh His feet with her tears, but having wiped them with her hair, she anointed them with myrrh; she was [p. 98] conscious that His feet were suffering and that they were going to suffer again.
I said that the principle of anointing appeared from the outset of God’s ways toward man. I believe it is spoken of for the first time in connection with Abraham. It does not say that he was formally anointed, but Psalm 105 links the idea with Abraham. “Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm” Psalm 105:15. We see that, from the outset, God had recourse to the idea of anointing, and in anointing men He committed Himself to them, and protected them: “Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm” Psalm 105:15. The dignity of which I have spoken is seen with the patriarchs. There is a certain dignity with man according to flesh, but true divine dignity depends on the anointing, and we find it in a man like Jacob who, at the end of his days, acknowledges his serious failures; nevertheless, he is greater than the greatest monarch of the world; outwardly he was a Syrian ready to perish — a shepherd in the eyes of the Egyptians; but inwardly he was greater than Pharaoh, for, “beyond all gainsaying, the inferior is blessed by the better” Hebrews 7:7. In what was he better? In that Jacob was anointed. He had faith, and without faith there is no anointing; but it is in the anointing that all dignity rests. The great principle of the anointing having been established, we find it developed in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. And in presenting Christ in outward poverty in this world, God would establish all things in divine dignity.
So we find that Aaron was anointed, with the whole tabernacle system. You see how God desires that every detail of His world should be marked by the anointing. Aaron was anointed with oil, and also the whole tabernacle. Later on, king David is anointed. And God would have us pay attention to the vessel He uses for the anointing: it was a [p. 99] horn. When Saul was anointed (1 Samuel 10:1), Samuel took a vial of oil; the vessel containing the oil was like a bottle, of human manufacture. While David was anointed with Samuel’s horn (1 Samuel 16:1); the horn is something which grows of itself, showing the strength and beauty of the creature. This undoubtedly has reference to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, for man could not be anointed apart from the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. The anointing oil typifies the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given as a consequence of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. That ought to touch our hearts. If I am clothed with dignity, Christ had first to suffer. Now note that the king is anointed after the priest; and afterwards the prophet is anointed. These are the three great official features attaching to Christ: the priest, the king and the prophet. In these three offices is manifested the dignity of Christ: we have part in the priesthood; we have part in the royalty of Christ; we have part in prophetic ministry. The dignity of the anointing is seen in each of these features. No one can be a priest unless he has the Spirit of Christ. No one can rule, if he has not the Spirit of the King. None can prophesy, save one who has the Spirit of Jesus, “for the Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus” Revelation 19:10.
Having said enough as to this precious subject, I would like to show you how it is introduced in relation to believers of the present dispensation. The apostle Paul says, “He that ... has anointed us is God”. It is a question of Him who does it. Men are appointed to different positions in this world, but who anointed them? Who has the right to anoint them? Who can confer dignity upon them? Only God. So we have this remarkable word: “He that ... has anointed us is God”. In that passage (2 Corinthians 1) it speaks of the Spirit in three different ways: firstly, He is the anointing; secondly,
[p. 100] He is the seal; thirdly, He is the earnest in our hearts. The first aspect presents divine dignity and depends on the other two aspects; that is to say, I am conscious of belonging to God. I know that I belong to God by reason of His rights in creation and of His rights in redemption. But, by the seal of the Spirit, I am conscious of being God’s, and I refuse to belong to other masters. Beloved, it is a very precious thing to be conscious of being God’s. There is yet another thing; that is what I have for my own heart; He has given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. My heart possesses something; I have in my heart the earnest of all that God has for me. In possessing the earnest, I am conscious of all that God has for me, and of all that He is for me. I am, therefore, set up, so to speak, independently of all that is in the world. I have means to maintain me — means by which the dignity of the anointing is supported.
What I have just said are general remarks connected with the gift of the Spirit to the believer. But in the first epistle of John, we have the anointing (or unction) in relation to intelligence — that is in the presence of antichrist. In our days it is necessary to be fortified against the attacks of antichristian teaching; theological schools, professors’ chairs, modern books are full of antichristian doctrines; the minds of the young are corrupted by this teaching which makes pretence of being superior to every other teaching that went before. It may be superior in the mind of those who receive it, but the unction preserves us from its attacks. Having the unction, we deny that this teaching is superior; we are conscious of the superiority of the truth. John says that we have received an unction: “Ye have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things” 1 John 2:20. We who have received this unction have proved the superiority of Christianity. The things that men are [p. 101] busy searching out and analysing, we know already; they are seeking the origin of man, and say that it is unknown; they pursue their researches, while Ecclesiastes tells us that man is known. Speaking of our Lord Jesus it says that He knew all men, and we have no need of other research. The truth is known: we who have the unction know we know that the truth has been proclaimed, and we can regard with disdain what men consider to be superior. The Lord said to Nicodemus, “I have said the earthly things to you” (John 3:12) — all the earthly things were well known to Him. The Lord Jesus knows all about the physical creation, for He created all things. He knows all about us. Men on earth pretend to know, but what do they know as to what is in heaven? It says, “No one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven” (John 3:13), and He it is who knows what is in heaven. Thus, knowing the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the knowledge of all things on earth and in the heavens. Possessing the Holy Spirit come down from heaven, we have the means of knowing all things. It is said that the Holy Spirit in us knows all things. The possession of the Spirit of God as unction renders us independent of men, and gives us a dignity in that independence. I am not a religious man, but I am clothed with dignity in the position that I have. Such is the believer anointed by God!
The apostle says “These things have I written to you concerning those who lead you astray: and yourselves, the unction which ye have received from him abides in you” 1 John 2:26,27. The Holy Spirit is given to us permanently, for He “abides in you”. The young believer is thus protected because he is conscious of the presence of the unction; this blessed unction is present with us when we read and meditate on the word at home. It is the Holy Spirit who sheds light; we are thus enveloped in [p. 102] light, and we see all things as they are. He is with us when we read the Scriptures together; we read them then with dignity, respect and reverence; He speaks to our hearts; He is in us as those who compose the temple of God. The light comes from one brother after another when we are gathered together, and we are thus superior to man whose understanding is darkened and his future uncertain. “We know”, says John. Those who have the unction know the truth. They know.
Now, before closing, I wish to show you how that is developed in relation to collective dignity, in 1 Corinthians 12:12,13. “So also is the Christ”. The expression refers to the saints in their collective relations. It is not a question here of Christ personally, but it is Christ seen in the saints in a collective way. In verse 13, “For also in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body”. As being “baptised”, we are all one: we cease to be individuals; we are maintained in living relation the one with the other. The figure the apostle uses is that of the human body — an organism; all the members in the body fulfil their different functions. Then, it says that we “have all been given to drink of one Spirit”. Someone else had to baptise me. The baptism of the Spirit is by the Lord Jesus. As to baptism with water, it is never said that the Lord Jesus Christ baptised anyone: “Jesus himself did not baptise, but his disciples” John 4:2. Many saints have been able to baptise others, but Jesus alone baptises with the Holy Spirit. We have all been baptised in the power of one Spirit. But then, I must drink, myself; no one can do it for me. Thus, for the satisfaction of my heart, I am given to drink of the blessed Spirit of God. That is a reality, dear brethren. All those who are conscious of being part of the body have tasted the blessedness of it. The divine intention is that there is to be a vessel down here for divine [p. 103] service and testimony. That is what should be seen in every locality where there are children of God, as it existed at Corinth. There were Jews, Greeks and the assembly of God.
I enter the synagogue. What do I find there? Much pretension, but no light. There is no unction.
I go to the Greeks. What do I find there? They gathered at Areopagus to hear something new, what the newspapers announce to men, for Areopagus was like an exchange: but what were these new things that took place on earth? What wicked men were doing: murders, deaths, marriages, births. Is there any unction there? No, there is nothing marked by dignity; it does not rise above flesh.
I enter the assembly at Corinth. What do I find there? The saints are gathered together, the word of God is read; there is a true ministry; I am conscious of the presence of God; I am above the level of men; God is there by the Spirit. The unction is there, dear brethren. At Corinth, God has a vessel — the assembly — a vessel capable of reflecting heaven; and if I look at the dear brethren in their houses, I see that the husbands are the heads, that the wives are subject, that the children are dependent on their parents, that the Spirit operates, that there is a reflection of the Lord. You see the dignity that attaches to it. “So also is the Christ”.
I have nothing to add. I commend to you the idea of a vessel in a locality, a vessel in the possession of the Spirit of God to display the dignity and order of His house and as testimony in all its forms.
Address by J.T. at Beauvoisin, 8th May, 1926, evening.