THE NEED FOR A REVIVAL OF AFFECTION FOR CHRIST
D. Robertson
I believe we are in a time, beloved brethren, when God is active to speak to our affections about Christ, and to draw them after Him. I have had that exercise for some time now and have felt quite confirmed in it as the ministry of the day proceeded, that God would appeal to our affections. I believe that there is need for the revival of what is real and vital in the way of affection for Christ. It may be that for most of us at any rate there would have to be the honest confession that there has been a good deal of waning of affection, and a certain form and tradition has taken its place. We are in Laodicean days and the Lord makes His feelings about it perfectly plain. He says, “I would that thou wert cold or hot”, Revelation 3: 15. How much the Lord feels indifference, and especially indifference where at one time there was vitality. One speaks as much to myself as to any one else, beloved. I believe that the Lord Jesus Himself, and indeed each of the divine Persons, is making an appeal to us, to reach our affections, and to capture them freshly for the Lord and for the Lord’s things. There is no doubt that there is a great deal of knowledge amongst us, and thankful we are for it, for it is a shame if the truth is not known; but I believe that the main spring of activity must stem from living affection for Christ. How the Lord loves to look down into a heart that is burning for Him, and He knows when that is not so.
The surrender of first love in Ephesus, you can be sure, was first taken notice of by the Lord; He would be the first to feel it. It has often been said—brethren will know it, it is a quotation from Mr. Stoney—that the first thing that went was the top shoot. It looked as if things were still all right, but the first appearance of decay was in the top shoot. A small beginning, but it led to the surrender of what was in a peculiar way precious to Him. Well, publicly, it will never be attained to again, but it can be attained to in a moral and spiritual way, and in a secret way in the hearts of those who are prepared to answer to the divine appeal in the days we are in. This period of recovery is a wonderful time, and it began by the saints rallying to a call for affection for Christ. That great call went out, ‘Behold, the Bridegroom!’; not merely, ‘He cometh’, but the Bridegroom presented in all His attractiveness is what called out the affections of the saints at the outset of this time of recovery. Beloved brethren, the end will be no different. Those who keep to the pathway of recovery—and make no mistake, God means to end it, and will end it, with a triumphant result and fruit for Himself—will be those who have vital and living affection for Christ.
There are many young people here, and some in this locality, setting up home, and I would appeal to you that you might set yourself as to your vitality for Christ. As I say, if there is a lack of it. Christ Himself is the One who has first noticed it, and He feels it. He feels it as no other could feel it; I would say that He feels it more keenly than the most spiritual person in the meeting. I have thought recently that the recovery has become old enough to become traditional. The clear way for its continuance, beloved brethren, is the sustainment of living affection, and the power of affection, for the Lord Jesus Christ. That affection will culminate in that glorious cry, “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”. There is no greater testimony to the unified affections of the saints for Christ than the bride saying with the Spirit, Come, to the Lord Jesus; that is the final matter.
The Lord speaks in this section about being lifted up; it is a feature of this gospel, and I would encourage the younger men and women to look into the three references in John to the Lord being lifted up. In chapter 3 He is lifted up in view of life—“as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up”, (John 3: 14). No one who has never looked at Christ lifted up as in the light of John 3 has life. There is life in a look—There is life in a look at the crucified One; There is life at this moment for thee.
He is lifted up, as we have been taught, between heaven and earth. It is like the brazen altar which was between the entrance of the tabernacle and the tabernacle itself, which was God’s dwelling place; and you will remember that, when it was carried, the brazen altar was covered with a cloth of purple. While man lifted Christ up and crucified Him, yet what you see is the holy dignity of Christ accepting the whole position under God’s eye in judgment in order to bear away the great matter of sin in the sight of a holy God. So He was lifted up, and you look at Him with the eye of faith and live.
In John 8 I think He is lifted up in view of exposure; He says to a certain class of people, “When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am he” (John 8: 28).
What a solemn thing that is! The Person they lifted up was none other than God Himself, the Creator of the world, the One of whom we have spoken today; think of all that is predicated of Him in chapter 1 of this gospel, “without him not one thing received being which has received being” (John 1: 3). The world exists as His creature, and yet He says, “When ye shall have lifted up the Son of man, then ye shall know that I am he”. No wonder Paul said that if the princes of this world had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. The lifting up of this blessed Person exposed the world to the full. So in chapter 12 the Lord says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. It is a wonderful matter, beloved brethren, the lifting up of Christ; it clearly refers to His crucifixion, to the shame and ignominy of the cross. That is the place that the world accorded Jesus, a place of shame, a place of ignominy, a place that expressed its hatred of Him. The most outstanding witness of divine grace that ever appeared amongst men was rejected, and the One who bore that witness was placed on a shameful cross. In this gospel the Lord Jesus says, “they have both seen and hated both me and my Father” (John 15: 24).
What does that mean to you today? Are you a lover of Christ? How vital is your love for Him? What does it mean to you that the world put Christ on the cross? What is the practice of our lives in the light of the place that the world gave Christ? The habits of the world, the fashions of the world, the ways of the world, what do they mean to us? As it says in Revelation, “where also their Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11: 8). Is that the world to us?
One notices tendencies amongst us, beloved brethren, not only among younger people but also among older people, that are worldly; they are not in keeping with Paul’s commandments, and, one speaks soberly, these are not features of persons who love Christ; they are features of the world that crucified Christ. I trust the brethren are with me in that.
Where is your love for Christ? Where is your sympathy? Is your sympathy with a crucified Christ or is it tending rather towards the world which crucified Him? Have you ever wondered why in the book of Revelation the Lord Jesus is constantly referred to as the Lamb? What is the aim in it? The aim is that the affection and sympathy of the believer might be secured for the suffering One. Oh may your sympathy and your affection, and mine, be aroused in a fresh way in relation to the Lord Jesus.
Although He was crucified by man, His crucifixion becomes a great divine victory, and it becomes an exposure, and a place of judgment, of the world which crucified Him. We sometimes sing that in our gospel meetings—
Man the cross to Him awarded,
Man the Saviour crucified;
This world’s judgment stands recorded,
God’s own nature glorified. (Hymn 404)
The world that crucified Christ was condemned in that very act, and not only so, but it was morally terminated in the sight of a holy God in that very scene of the crucifixion. Now is this world judged and its prince cast out. He says. Think of the prince of this world, Satan, being excommunicated from his own world, the world that he had set up, and geared in rebellion against God, and in hatred against God’s beloved Son, and the great act that he thought would symbolise his triumph became his downfall. Here this glorious Person in His humility as Man accepted the cross, and made it His own. It was the cross man gave Him, but the apostle Paul speaks about the blood of His cross. That is, the Lord Jesus in His manhood was morally great enough to take on the whole thing and turn it to God’s glory, and to the judgment of everything that was displeasing to God. Ah, what a Person is the Lord Jesus Christ! He says, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out”, and then He says, “and I”—I want to speak to you about that “and I”.
What does it mean to you? “and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. You may say, That means that all men will be converted. It does not mean that. All are not drawable; certain persons are exposed by the cross; but what the cross, and the presentation of the cross, manifests is whether you are the subject of God’s sovereign work, and whether you can be drawn; that is what is said earlier in the gospel, “No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him” (John 6: 44); these are the persons who are drawn to Christ, and in spite of all the shame and ignominy of the cross. Christ is attractive to them.
The position is very similar to our own day. In spite of the breakdown, in spite of the failure, in spite of the public reproach that attaches to the name of Christ in its vital sense, thank God there are those who are drawn to Him, and He becomes the great gathering centre for such.
That is why we are here today, because Christ is precious to us, because He is our gathering centre. I often think of those women in John 19, “And by the cross of Jesus stood his mother, and the sister of his mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala” (John 19: 25).
These were persons who were drawn to the crucified Jesus. It is interesting that Paul both in Corinthians and Galatians presents Christ crucified; they needed it; I think we need it, beloved brethren. I think if there is an honest state of heart amongst us today we would readily agree that we need Christ crucified. Paul says, “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews an offence, and to nations foolishness”, 1 Corinthians 1: 23. These persons could not be drawn to Christ. I think that as there is a presentation of the sufferings of Christ the heart of the true lover is drawn out to Him, and is gathered to Him in a fresh response.
So these women stood by the cross of Jesus. Mr. Darby says of them that you could not have torn Jesus out of their hearts, out of their affections, such was His place there. One wonders at that because I find that sometimes Christ is very easily displaced in my affections, and things that are hardly worth mentioning seem so important. What really is vital, what really is worthwhile, is the affection that is in your heart for Christ. Could Christ be displaced in your affections? Is there something, or someone, that is dislodging Christ in your affections? It is a sorrowful matter if we are tending to worldliness. Oh may we be preserved from it, beloved brethren! It is the world where Christ was crucified; and if He was here today they would crucify Him again; the fact of the matter is that they are doing it morally, as the word says, “crucifying for themselves as they do the Son of God”, Hebrews 6: 6. It is happening all the time. What does it mean to us? Are we going to rally to this cry of His? Are we going to be drawn to Him? In spite of the humble conditions and the small circumstances, are we going to be attracted to Him, and gathered to Him, and have Him before us as our object that we might be faithful to Him?
There is a matter that came home to my affections freshly in the past week—that we have a privilege now that we shall not have in eternity, and that is the privilege of being faithful to Christ in the sphere of His rejection. Let us value it, dear brethren, and let us seek the Spirit’s help that our affections might be kept alive and vital for this glorious Person. He says, “and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. Be amongst those that are drawn, that He may become the absorbing object of our affections, the One who fills our hearts constantly, the One who fills our desires constantly. I love that psalm where the psalmist says, “Whom have I in the heavens? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee”, Psalm 73: 25. Oh that that might be more constantly true of myself!
One feels that I have been just held by this simple word to appeal to the saints, young and old, that we might not allow our affections to be led away from Christ. There is nothing that could rightly replace Christ in your affections. An idol is a worthless thing. The psalmist says, “eyes have they, and they see not; They have ears, and they hear not” (Psalm 115: 5, 6), and yet it may be that you are giving up Christ for idols, for this world and its empty glory.
The hymn writer says—
Were the vast world mine own,
With all its varied store,
And Thou, Lord Jesus, wert unknown,
I still were poor.
Think of exchanging Christ for the world! The Lord says, “For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?”, Mark 8: 36. What does that mean? I think it means your own personal life with Christ. What would you choose in exchange for that—some part or feature of the world? O, dear brethren, let us be real; let us be on our knees to seek vitality in these days, to capture the spirit that marked a Mr. Darby, a Mr. Wigram, and other men and women of the recovery. I read of a person who was prepared to spend fortunes for the development and spread of the truth. Why? Because of the vitality of love for Christ. Yet there may be some little paltry thing and we would not give it up for Christ. May we be preserved from it!
These are His own words, “and I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me”. May there be some heart freshly drawn to Christ.
The poet says—
Hast thou seen Him, heard Him, known Him?
Is not thine a captured heart?
Chief among the thousands own Him,
Joyful choose the better part.
What has stripped the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not the sense of right, nor duty,
But the sight of peerless worth.
No sense of duty will capture a heart for Christ, it is His own beauty, His own holy worth, His own preciousness; the love of Christ as He hung on Calvary for your sake and mine; surely that would be enough to capture our hearts now and eternally. The writer goes on to say—
‘Tis the eye that looked on Peter,
‘Tis the face that Stephen saw,
‘Tis the heart that wept with Mary
Canst alone from idols draw.
Christ must draw, or nothing will. How He loves! and He would appeal that He might gain our love freshly; that whatever might be tampering with our affections might be discarded; as the prophet says, “thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth—Out!”, Isaiah 30: 22. Oh that we might be helped, beloved brethren, to discard any unreal matter which would hinder our vital and living affections for Christ. I believe He has appealed to us in the ministry today, and one would seek grace to add a word as to it.
When we come to John 20 Jesus is not speaking about being lifted up, but He says, “I ascend”. The disciples went back to their own home, but there is a woman here whose heart could not do without Christ, even the very words of angels could not console her. Two angels in white garments speak to this woman, but they had no message for an inconsolable heart; there was nothing that could meet her affections but the Lord Jesus Himself. Oh that my heart were like that, satisfied with nothing but Christ. Then it says, “Having said these things she turned backward and beholds Jesus standing there, and knew not that it was Jesus”. The Lord Jesus speaks to her and He calls her by name. Perhaps He would do that today in the simplicity of this word, reaching into that heart of yours that was once alive with affection for Him. It may have become rather obscure but perhaps the Lord would address you by your own personal name, and because of your own personal worth to Him, and, like Mary, it may be that you will turn round. Oh that there might be a turning round! I remember a beloved brother, now with the Lord, giving a word at a burial meeting many years ago on this verse. He said, The glory of the position is that Mary’s back was now to the tomb and her face to the Saviour. Oh that your back might be to this world and your face turned brightly towards the Saviour!
Then He has a message for her, He says, You cannot touch Me, Mary; you have known Me here in a holy relationship; all that is over now, “I ascend”. Think of the spirit of the ascending Man; that is what is needed, beloved brethren; we need to be in the faith of ascension. You will remember the words of the sons of the prophets after Elisha had received the double portion of the spirit of Elijah, the man who had gone up. They said, Perhaps he is cast upon some mountain, or into some ravine; let us send out a search, we are well equipped with all these men and plenty of resources. They were just like the Corinthians, plenty of human resource but no faith of the ascension. Elisha says later, I told you not to go. He knew they would not find Elijah, and even had they found him, what difference would it have made? because they did not believe anyway; they had not the faith of ascension. But this woman had the faith of the ascension—
“I ascend”. Think of the view of the Man, not now being lifted up on a cross of shame, but a Man ascending to eternal glory, to fill God’s heart and to fill it constantly, as He does at this very moment. He says, in effect, to Mary, I am going to another sphere, and your link with Me henceforth is going to be in relation to that other sphere. I am going to transfer your affections from earth to heaven. That is really, I think, the glory which Paul’s ministry opens up, the glory of the great truth of Christ in a fixed and final position, and what the Lord Jesus indicates to Mary is really the position of the assembly as related to the ascended Man.
There was wonderful adjustment in Mr. Taylor’s time when it was shown clearly that the ground of the assembly is not merely resurrection, it is heavenly, it is ascension, that is, the assembly is associated with a Man who is filling the presence of God in fixed and final conditions. Oh what rapture it is to the heart to speak of it in this way! He says, “Go to my brethren”; He links them with Himself; “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. It is the glory, and scope, and greatness of God in revelation, and man in relation to it, answering to it. We sometimes say something that is quite faulty; we say, Well, the answer to the revelation will be complete; but it is complete; it is complete in Christ.
There is no principle of evolution in Christianity; we come into something that is absolutely complete because Christ has revealed God and He Himself answers to the revelation. The Man has arrived in all His glory, arrived in all His perfection, and He is answering completely to God known in revelation, and you and I, through divine grace, are brought to have part in that.
It is a wonderful thing, the glory of divine revelation. God had been known in various ways. I suppose there are four main disclosures about God in the Scriptures. First is that He is the Almighty God; He says He appeared as the Almighty God to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That would be a glorious thing to know, God as the Almighty God. Then He says to Moses, By my name Jehovah was I not known, and that is the next great disclosure; Jehovah is His redemptive name (Exodus 6: 2, 3). It is a wonderful thing to know God as the Almighty, just as Abraham and Isaac and Jacob knew Him, but you can also know God redemptively in Christ. In the world to come He will be known as the Most High. His supremacy will be shown over every power that has ever existed in this world; and you too can know Him in such a way. Then our own day is the greatest of all when God is known as Father, wonderful name of grace, wonderful name of relationship. The Lord Jesus is introducing Mary, and through Mary introducing others, into this glorious light. Not only the light, beloved brethren, but the joy and power of it. Oh may our affections be touched by these things, that we might be faithful to Christ in the day of His public rejection, and that our hearts might beat true to Him and be loyal to Him. There is nothing so loyal as love, and that is what Christ is appealing for, and not only that, but He would engage and absorb our affections with the glory of a whole revealed system of things—Himself the centre as a glorious Man in the presence of God.
The main exercise at this time, beloved brethren, is to appeal that we might allow our affections to be aroused for Christ. I believe He Himself is in the appeal, making known His longings for our affections. May none of us fail to respond to that appeal in love and in affection, and in faithfulness, as long as the Lord Jesus leaves us here. For we await His return. It will be very
soon, and therefore I believe what one has said at this time is quite important. If the world is allowed to encroach any further it could destroy everything; it must not be allowed to interfere with what is precious to Christ in your heart and in mine. May we be preserved from it. I am not speaking legally, or Pharisaically, but in simplicity on behalf of the Lord Jesus, because believe He would appeal for our affections. Why should He do that? It is because He values them. The Lord Jesus prizes your affections, and He prizes mine. May He bless the word.
Address at Birmingham
12 September 1986