THE EFFECTS WHICH SPRING FROM UNION WITH CHRIST
THE EFFECTS WHICH SPRING FROM UNION WITH CHRIST
“We love him, because he first loved us”. His love to us is the origin and spring of all our love to Him. Hence the better and more fully we know His love and can enter into it, the better we love Him.
There are, I might say, three measures of our love to Him. The first, when we know what He has done for us as Saviour; second, when we know what He is doing for us as Priest; and thirdly, when we know union with Him as our Head. His love for each of us existed in the whole three before we knew the first; consequently it is only when we know the three that we truly know the love that led Him to do the first — to die for us. He “loved me, and gave himself for me”; this embraces everything; He loved the church and gave himself for it; yet our love is always measured by the measure we know of His love.
When I know Him as my Saviour, as the One who bore the judgment for me, who was delivered for my offences and raised again for my justification, then the love of God is shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit which is given to me. I begin to be without fear, for as His love is known fear departs. It is when we are relieved from the fear of judgment by His work that we have the first sense of love to Him. The freedom from fear, assured to our hearts by Himself as when He said to Peter, “Fear not”, makes Him dearer to us than anything else; and as they brought their ships to land and followed Him, so does every one who has tasted this measure of His love. So with Jonathan; when he saw that by the hand of David Goliath, the terror of his soul, had been completely removed, his head in David’s hand, “the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul ... And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle”, 1 Samuel 18: 1 - 4.
It is very interesting to note the effect of this measure. The heart has learned that through a Man — the Lord Jesus Christ — it is relieved of all fear in the presence of God. Where the fear existed, there it had been removed, and the consequence is that the heart clings to this Person, and delights to surrender for His sake. The woman in Luke 7 going into the Pharisee’s house, a place she would naturally shrink from, in order to express her love to Jesus as her Saviour, sets forth in pattern one who has reached this measure.
We all know how striking and effective it is when we see one now and again so attracted to Him that there is an open and public surrender of property or natural advantages in order to make much of Him. The One from heaven is more to the heart than any property here. Love likes to exalt its object at its own loss.
The next measure of His love made known to us is the way He is “able to sympathise with our infirmities”. We grow in a deeper sense of the first measure as we advance in the knowledge of His love. It is like the growth of a tree, every advance in the tree increases the first growth, so that the bottom of the tree is ever the greatest part of it. In the first measure all the question of sin has been settled; and by the Spirit, in the freedom of His life, we are, though encompassed with infirmity, moving onward and upward. Then we learn that He never leaves us nor forsakes us, but as we are near Him, He sympathises with us, as He Himself has felt a similar trial or difficulty. He cannot sympathise with wilfulness; He does with infirmities. He took our infirmities on Him and bare our sicknesses. The One who perfectly knows us, perfectly loves us, and is perfectly able to feel with us; He, in divine power, is ever in the aspect suited to cheer and [p. 410] support us; and we find Him thus when our faith is simple. In the storm He is asleep; that is the aspect His sympathy takes. Unbelief is occupied with the storm; faith learns how He is a very present help in time of trouble.
Mary of Bethany knew Him in this measure, she knew His sympathy; while Martha, who suffered from the same sorrow, was too unsubdued to know it. The knowledge of this measure is very effective. It is not so much the thought of giving to Him in any open way, as with Jonathan, but now nothing can satisfy but His company; we cannot do without Him. The more we use Him in our daily difficulties, and learn how He would act in them, — and thus His own grace is imparted to us, — the less can we bear to be here without Him. The most valued thing belonging to this scene is freely buried with Him; and this is properly the difference between the alabaster box of John 12 and Luke 7.
It is a most wonderful history. How happy to remember all the way that He has led us! Surely if Elisha could feel that Elijah was so indispensable to him that nothing but a double portion of his spirit could make up for his absence, how much more with us who know anything of the company of our blessed Lord, so infinitely beyond that of Elijah!
One is now like Ruth to Naomi. A Person commands our whole being. It is not now surrender of property in testimony of my heart’s affection, but it is that a Person is more to me than anything here, and that I can readily leave everything I have known and valued, as Rebekah did for Isaac. The One who is my only stay and comfort on this earth has left it; hence I am running on to heaven, for “he that shall come will come, and will not tarry”.
Now we come to the third measure of His love in which every measure is fully learned. In this measure we know the exceeding greatness of the power that wrought in Christ: we know that we are united to Him by the [p. 411] Holy Spirit. The One whom we know as our Saviour and High Priest is our Head, “from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God”. It is from this altitude that we can acquire some apprehension of His love “which passeth knowledge”. For it is when we know our calling that, as in Ephesians 3: 11 - 20, we know the love that passes knowledge, that we might be “filled even to all the fulness of God”.
The knowledge of union, which is the consummation of love, has an effect on us entirely different from any previous measure of His love. True it is that then the greatness of His love in giving Himself is fully known, and hence, as I have said, His giving Himself to death is ever the sure ground for His doing anything.
Now let us try to gather from Scripture some of the effects which spring from the knowledge of union with Christ. I believe the first great effect is restfulness of heart. Surely as united to Him I know that as He is, so am I in this world. See the effect on Mary Magdalene as a pattern, when she heard His words, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. The everlasting bond of union is the climax of affection. There cannot be more, and there never can be less. The heart rests in an indissoluble tie to its object. It cannot be made surer of what it loves. When the heart has not learned this, it is ever to a great degree occupied with itself — with relation, I admit, to the Lord, but then there is not complete restfulness; hence I believe this is its first effect. Stephen knew it in power when he, through the Holy Spirit, “looked up steadfastly into heaven”.
Now, restfulness being the first effect, the next is that I am in spirit where He is; His place is my place, an enjoyment and reality which I could not know here if I were not united to Him. My joy is full. An immense field of blessing is now opened out to me, which is embodied in the prayer in Ephesians 3: 14 - 21.
[p. 412] Next, as down here, I am devoted to His pleasure; I know in whom I have believed, and, like the disciples, though I am where He is not, His words are now the one thought of my heart. “If a man love me, he will keep my words”. It is evident one is now in quite a new line. It has been said that a relationship generates its own affections, hence there is now an entirely new experience to the heart. As one Spirit with the Lord, I feel I am entirely under His control. The church is subject to Christ. I have now but One to please. It is both my duty and my joy.
If the entirely new position in which I am set through union with Christ be not seen, I shall not be able to understand the drawing of heart to Him which springs from that relationship.
Obedience is ever connected with dependence. Next to obedience, or keeping His words, I get the sense of His confidence in me. My heart looks for His confidence. “I call you not servants ... but I have called you friends”. “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her”. There is no greater confirmation of His unhindered love than that He confides in us, no greater joy to my heart; as He said to Peter, “Feed my lambs”, “Feed my sheep”. He failed because of confidence in himself, but the Lord would have confidence in him. What joy to my heart when this is known!
We are next in concert with Him, an experience of untold blessedness when I can share with Him in His interests. If I am not enjoying union I could not be in company with Him in His present work, even to “sanctify” the church. This is His present chief interest, and the nearer I am to Him and the more subject I am to Him like Sarah, calling Him Lord the more He leads me into what His heart is set on. If the heart of the queen of Sheba was entranced when she saw all the personal interests of Solomon, how much more is mine, when the Holy Spirit glorifies Him to me; as He said, “He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”. It is not easy [p. 413] to describe the sense of His love, the intimacy of affection, known to the heart as it is thus associated with Him in service. Hence only now is true service entered on; and as I am serving Him according to His pleasure, my heart knows the truth of His words, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them”.
The love that accepts my service binds my heart to itself, for when we serve from love, our love is always increased, as a mother’s love for her child.
Service embraces the assembly and its prosperity; a great circle of interest, as the faithful wife devoted to the interests of her lord in his absence, beginning with “endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”, up to the highest point, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, reaching out to every detail which would subserve to this great end; and finally, “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”, resisting every force of the enemy to turn us aside from making known “the mystery of the gospel”.
To the heart in true service, only one thing remains, and that is to see Him. The heart will be fully satisfied when we see Him . The one loving Him best, and serving Him best, the bride in character, has but one leading desire, even to see Him, and hence, in company with the Spirit, says to Him, “Come!” while still unwearied in service. Surely it is only the heart that lives on His love that can know the way love to Him is deepened and increased as the sense of His coming is a felt reality to it. Surely the wise virgins trimmed their lamps to go out to meet Him. The nearer He is, the more the heart longs to see Him. He promotes love in our hearts by leading us into the consciousness of His being near. Thus proximity to Him produces suitability; as with Rebekah, when she caught sight of Isaac, she became in appearance suited for him; “she took a vail, and covered herself”.
[p. 414] Thus feebly have I set forth some of the great effects which spring from a knowledge of union with Christ. The subject delights one, but it is too much like music at a distance. One catches a little of it, but the nearer you come to it, the more you are entranced by it.
May we draw nearer and nearer until we are not only filled with the melody, but our hearts wholly captivated by His love.