CHRIST RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN

^[p. 239] CHRIST RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN

No one can understand the course of God’s action in this time, who does not apprehend in faith that while our blessed Lord has left this scene where we are, for heaven, the Holy Spirit has come to us from heaven. We must hold these truths definitely. We must not consider first what would be the effect consequent on such an exchange, as we might say — even that the Lord, who had resided here, has been received up into heaven, and the Holy Spirit, who hitherto had never resided here, has come down from heaven to reside here. The truth is simple and obvious enough; but the more distinctly it is adhered to, the better shall we be able to grasp and delineate the new thing, entirely unprecedented, which is now God’s work on the earth.

Every believer understands something about Jesus being on the earth, when, in unspeakable grace, He effected our salvation. He died for our sins, and rose again according to the Scriptures. Every believer shares in this grace; but believers now are called to know more than this great truth. Unless they understand that Jesus has been exalted to God’s right hand, and that from there He sent down the Holy Spirit, they never can arrive at the new and peculiar position to which the assembly is called. None but saved souls could take any interest in this exchange of places by Christ and the Spirit. It is evident that if much had been effected before this exchange occurred, something very new, and hitherto unknown, must arise from it; and it is our duty and interest to search fully, not only into the intention of God in this exchange, but into the nature and scope of the new blessings to us which are consequent on it. Without controversy the blessings are new, and as they are consequent on, and derived from, this remarkable ^[p. 240] exchange — the Lord going away, and the Spirit coming in His place — we must confine our inquiry, as to the nature of the blessings, to this change from which they originated.

It is evident that salvation through the work of Christ could be preached and received, without this great change to which I have referred being known. Hence we must ascertain what would be the effect of it on a soul already assured of his salvation, through faith in Christ dead and risen. Cleared of judgment in the place of judgment, and from the old man which had exposed him to judgment, he is in the wilderness, with the hope of heaven surely, but not there in present possession. In saying so much, I have conceded to believers much more than they generally enjoy. The evangelist or the teacher who has not learned the consequence of the exchange I have spoken of cannot place or instruct souls beyond the wilderness. It is vain for either to affect to lead any before their own faith. It may be urged, as to the evangelist, that his work is the safety of the soul. I admit this; but if the evangelist were to trace his gift to its source, he would find that he had received his commission in heaven from an ascended Christ. Certainly everything derives its character from its source, and seeing the source of his gift could not lessen, but greatly add to, its value and use. But how many gifted men really believe that they have received their gifts in heaven, and from a Saviour who, when He had ascended, and had led captivity captive, gave gifts unto men? I might be asked, What mark would they bear when they do trace their ordination from the Lord in heaven? This is not the place for me to try to give any marks. What I desire now is, to press the great consequences which would accrue from either an evangelist or teacher accepting that the gift is from heaven, while the sphere where he is to use it is the earth. To my mind it is even more marked in the teacher, according to his devotedness, the self-denying walk on earth, of one he inculcates ^[p. 241] in doctrine and practice delivered from his sins, just as we find in Romans. Surely, one might retort, when this is lacking, there is no use in proposing any advance. This is but too true; but what we are engaged with now is the difference in the scope of the teaching of the one who knows he has come from heaven to teach, and the man who has only seen his deliverance from judgment, and necessarily Christ’s claim on him not to be conformed to this world. The better way is not to expose defects, but to present as fully as possible the true; and thus to show that any one not in keeping with it is defective. If no part of christianity were previous to the ascension of Christ, it would be comparatively easy, for then christianity would not be connected with anything prior to Christ’s ascension. Christianity, as I have already stated, dates from Christ’s death and resurrection, though the entirely new thing which was to characterise it, dates from Christ’s exaltation to God’s right hand in heaven, and the consequent descent of the Holy Spirit. The salvation of every believer was secured before He sat down at God’s right hand, but it is from that date that the believers of this present time are, by God, called into a new and hitherto unknown relationship to Christ, altogether dependent on, and originating from, the new place taken by Him and the Spirit. If this change of places be not maintained in living power in our souls, we shall never truly understand the wondrous consequences to us from it; an entirely new order of blessing, which did not precede, and which will be completed during the present places of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Hence everything must be circumscribed and confined to the effects which arise from Their present places. I dwell long on this, because a main point is gained when we see that the singular character of the blessing depends on it.

Let us now try and trace some of the effects derived from Their present places. Christ having gone to heaven, and the Holy Spirit having come down, all the work here must relate to Christ, the Head in heaven, and must be ^[p. 242] effected by the Holy Spirit. We cannot diverge from this course.

The evangelist, enlightened as to God’s calling, sets forth with heavenly power, because he is heavenly both by calling and gift, the perfect efficacy of the work of Christ to free every believer from the judgment lying on him here, with the zeal and fervour of one who knows that all the way to the Saviour in heaven is clear. He can declare even more than the angel to the shepherds, who was the first evangelist coming from heaven, — “I bring you good tidings of great joy”. The higher a man is morally, the better can he remove the darkness that obstructs and is too remote for a lesser power. The sun frays away many a darkness that no star can reach. So the evangelist, controlled by the truth of Christ’s present place, and the Spirit’s, would doubtless present the gospel as one who, in a peculiar way, is under the immediate counsel and direction of his ascended Lord, who is the Head of the body, and has given him to be an evangelist, to gather out a people for His name. He is absolutely dependent on the Spirit sent down from heaven; he feels that he cannot swerve from the Head, on the one hand, nor, on the other, from the Spirit sent down by Him to testify of Him: for it is evident that it is only the heavenly man who can be in the line of the Spirit’s testimony of a glorified Christ. True his work might be very unseen, and much unknown, but that is of small account, if he is in the line marked out by the One in heaven, and carried out through him by the One down here I feel I cannot convey the distinct, singular, and circumscribed course of an evangelist accepting and adhering to the true nature of his commission. He might have to go a long distance for a soul, as Philip to Gaza; or suffer much as Paul for the jailor, but they would be well-finished cases — his “joy, or crown of rejoicing” in the day of the Lord.

Well, then, what shall I say of the teacher, or how describe the character of his teaching? Oh! if saints ^[p. 243] throughout christendom could be awakened to the poverty of the food in the present day, they would be in constant supplication to the Lord that He would raise up faithful men who would learn the things taught by Paul (2 Timothy 2: 2); and surely no one can venture to say that the teaching current in the present day contemplates, in its best range, anything beyond the wilderness. Of course, the teacher knows the gospel; he must begin where he finds souls, but this much he must remember, that however he may lead them on, and however they may advance, like the growth of a tree, the truth first received, the very rudiments of the gospel, always advances with every additional growth. The teacher who comes from the Lord, and is altogether supported by the Spirit, not only supplies what souls require, but awakens desires in them for more; for his heart yearns to lead them up to Him from whom he has come. He feels he has plants to cultivate here, which are not of man, but of God, and that nothing but Christ can really serve them. It is an entirely new man, and therefore it is neither by man, nor from man. Not only is the Corinthian levity denounced, but also the Galatian legality; while the Colossian religiousness will be most carefully guarded against, and refused. It is here that the teacher proves himself heavenly, or rather that he is truly from Christ, and for Him only. The Colossian error is the snare that the more advanced fall into — the attempt to conform the old man to the new thing. In several specious ways this has been attempted. Perfectionism, of one kind or another, holiness by faith, and so on, extending into natural feeling, in manner and expression. Thus baptism became the mode of introducing the old man into the christian position, on the ground that it was to bear the mark of what was inwardly possessed — the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. The old was to be introduced into the standing of the new. The teacher from Christ desires in his heart that every believer should come to a “perfect man, unto the measure ^[p. 244] of the stature of the fulness of Christ”. He might not see any up to it, but the counsel of the Lord is in his heart. As a parent bird tends its offspring, not only until it is matured, but until it can fly and explore for itself; so is the teacher, according to his faithfulness, in great conflict for the saints, that they should reach up in apprehension to the mystery of God. There is before his mind the body of which Christ is the Head, united together by the Spirit, through whom all nourishment comes from the Head. He looks not at anything seen or done among men; he has through faith, an apprehension of what the church is in the mind of God. Much obstruction may be in his path, and hinder his service; but undeviatingly he pursues his course, knowing the counsel of the Lord, and that it shall stand. Christ pre-eminently occupies him, or, to make it clearer, faith in Christ. I feel we do not sufficiently apprehend the value of faith in Christ. Many dwell with much interest on faith in God, but faith in Christ would produce a result of a very different kind; for while the former would secure for one the help of God, the latter would separate me practically from man’s hopes and ways, the rudiments of the world, and so on. The acme of his labour is that each should be perfect in Christ, and that His life may be expressed in every detail of daily life. The life of a wilderness man, however unimpeachable or unblemished, is not enough for him; he seeks to have Christ seen in everything.

In Romans there is nothing said of a man’s family. In Peter there is nothing said of one’s children. In Colossians, where one is going to heaven, they are spoken of; but it is only in Ephesians that there are specific directions about them. It is only the one who has gone up to the source who has power or capacity to touch divinely the extremities, if I may so call the domestic duties; hence such a teacher as this proposes a practice of the highest order.

^[p. 245] I must conclude, though I feel I have not conveyed in any measure to my satisfaction, what the stature of the fulness of Christ is, which can only be apprehended as we seize by faith Christ’s present place, and the Spirit’s place; for as soon as they change from their present places, Christ’s body will no longer be here, for then comes the rapture. The Lord awaken us to the greatness of God’s calling.