THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY (5)

THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST IN RELATION TO THE GOSPEL AND THE ASSEMBLY (5)

John 4:13-24; John 5:20-25; John 17:25,26

SMcC The brethren will readily see the link in John’s gospel with our subject; namely, the building up in our souls of the knowledge of Christ and these passages have been selected because of certain features of Christ’s glory that appear in them. There are other passages that could have been taken, but these particularly bear on the service of God. In the first passage we have the knowledge of Christ as the Giver of living water - leading into the thought of the worship of God. In the next we have the knowledge of Christ in relation to the great subject of quickening. In the last we have the glory of Christ as the Revealer of the Father, the One who makes known to us the Father. Another thing will be noted by the brethren in these sections, and that is the references to eternal life, as we have it in John 4, 5 and 17. In fact it is rather remarkable that in John 17 we should have the two greatest blessings that God has purposed for men, namely, eternal life and sonship. The chapter opens with eternal life and ends with sonship. Sonship, of course, is a greater thought than eternal life, but eternal life is the highest thought of blessing in relation to our need and links with the earthly side. Sonship is the highest feature of blessing in the Christian dispensation in connection with what is related to God’s heart. The more we think of these thoughts the more remarkable it seems that John 17 should open with eternal life and end with sonship. Both these thoughts are prime factors in the service of God. Eternal life is basic to the service of God. I believe the Lord would help us as to eternal life at the present time, on the eve of the rapture. In the early days of recovery in regard of the truth, eternal life was a great point of conflict. The point of conflict was the doctrine of eternal life. But I think the Lord is going to help us, on the eve of the rapture, as to the practical bearing of eternal life. Beloved J.T. at Washington, in one of the last series of meetings, emphasised that there was a good deal more for us to understand in connection with eternal life. John’s ministry makes much of it. That is something we should think over, for John’s gospel is particularly written for our time. The striking emphasis throughout his gospel on eternal life must surely mean that the current departure from the truth in Christendom is to be met by this great thought of eternal life, as the saints enter upon it. Eternal life strictly refers to an out-of-the-world order of blessing. The Lord is emphasising what is out-of-the-world at the present time with us, so that we might be weaned more and more from what is in the world. So that as the rapture takes place it will not merely be an arbitrary act on the part of divine Persons, but there will be a corresponding state and condition in the assembly, as in the good of eternal life, which, we might say, will cause us to go up spontaneously. As the Lord descends there will almost be, what you might call, a reciprocal action. There will be the descent of the Lord, but there will be saints moving in the power and energy of eternal life, to meet Him. We need, therefore, to consider this matter of eternal life in its practical bearing and especially its bearing upon the service of God. The service of God cannot be carried on effectively unless we are clear of the world and associations in it; therefore the emphasis on eternal life.

LES I was wondering why the woman is spoken of as a Samaritan woman. Samaria represents the whole matter of a falsified profession. It says in 2 Kings 17: 33: “they feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, whence they had been carried away”. That is a remarkable chapter showing the fundamentals of the whole Samaritan matter. We may have the fear of God in our souls and yet not come fully into the sphere which the knowledge of God has reference to, apart from the world’s system and all that marks it.

SMcC We have the history of the system that is linked with Samaria, and the woman seems to have thoughts linked with it in her mind; but the Lord brings in what really is the crux of the matter in regard to what is merely profession and not vital, in the Spirit, as typified in the living water. The great line of demarcation at the present time between an empty profession and what is vital is just this matter of the living water, the Spirit.

LES Do you think the Lord has raised up the ministry of the Holy Spirit, not only in the way of teaching, but having in mind our vital living links with the Spirit of God, in view of fully understanding and entering into eternal life?

SMcC It is important to see the difference between eternal life in John 4 and John 3. John 3 presents eternal life in relation to faith and believing, in relation to the gospel testimony: “For God so loved the world”. John 4 is more than gospel testimony, more than faith, it involves the presence of the Spirit in the believer and that, of necessity, is greater than eternal life itself. The Spirit must be greater than eternal life because He is a divine Person. So the emphasis on the living water, in John 4, is very important, because the bearing of eternal life in that chapter (and the living water springing up to eternal life) is delivering and that is what is greatly needed in regard to the service of God. Persons need to be delivered in regard to what is inward in their souls, so that they should be free and buoyant in the assembly in the service of God. It is not so much what is outward in the world, but conditions in their own souls.

WBG Is that why the idea of drinking is brought in, showing that the inward cleansing and releasing is in mind?

SMcC Drinking involves what will affect us inwardly. I believe that in assembly service, while some of us may make a good deal of what we do not know - the secret of the lack of spontaneity really lies in the fact that we are not inwardly set free. We may enjoy the indwelling Spirit to a certain extent, but He has not been allowed full scope in this regard. The Lord says, “shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”.

JAK Does the springing up as in chapter 4 suggest the activity of the Spirit?

SMcC Yes. It is delightful to see life among the brethren, and we know what is required in the service. What is there that God has not done, we might say, to make possible the greatest results in His service to Himself? Every one of us therefore should be concerned that we should be in the flow of the worship and contributing to it audibly. That is, those of us who can; the sisters, of course, cannot. It is their part to remain silent, but they contribute to it in a substantial way, silently, because the sisters form the body of spirituality that supports the service.

WBG So it has a direct effect on the service.

SMcC It does, because eternal life has a direct bearing upon the service of God. The service of God is not a matter of ritualism, getting on your feet and expressing well-known terms among the brethren. It is the result of life in your soul, life in the environment and sphere you are in. God loves the thought of life, as seen in the creation, and He so loves the thought of life in the assembly. We should be very concerned, therefore, that He should see the expression of it in His service. If I were a brother in the assembly and sitting silent, I would be greatly concerned, especially if there were much space of time for something to be done in the way of ministering to the heart of God. We may not think it is very serious if we do not take part, but it is, because God has constituted the brothers so that they should take part. We do not have to say much - if, for example, a brother got on his feet and just said to the Lord, ‘We thank Thee for declaring the Father’s Name!’ Well, that is something. The Father would find great delight in that and the Lord would find great delight in it too.

Ques Should I know what it is that hinders me?

SMcC I should. That is what the Lord is bringing up with the woman. She had had a public history, and He is bringing matters up with her so that she may be set free; it was not to condemn her. He wanted to see her in this spontaneous flow that is indicated in “shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. If that is in my soul. I shall not be able to keep myself without breaking through and securing that which means so much to God. The whole economy has been designed and the whole work of redemption has been wrought in order that there may be an audible answer to God in His service in the assembly.

Rem The Lord would help the sisters then to have intelligence as to what may be hindering in the service of God. They might serve in prayer in regard to the difficulty.

SMcC I should think so. We owe a good deal to the sisters because the body of spirituality, in any local gathering, is largely made up of what is resident in the sisters. They are the silent unit in the local make-up and we can see from John 12 that the body of spirituality lies with them.

Rem The Lord spoke to a sister here, not a brother, and there was result as to it.

SMcC In John’s gospel the Lord makes a lot of the sisters.

Rem He calls her ‘Woman’.

SMcC That is a dignified word. We want to view the sisters with the dignity that is becoming to them, in the light of this word, because there is no doubt that the assembly would be in the Lord’s mind in saying, ‘Woman’. ‘Woman’ in the normal bearing of the word always points to the assembly.

LES “This shall be called Woman” - Ishshah - “because this was taken out of a man”, Genesis 2: 23.

SMcC That is it.

JHS Is the secret of relief from oneself seen in what the Spirit becomes in the person - “a fountain of water springing up into eternal life”?

SMcC It is what is taking place; “the water that I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. Christ gives the living water with this definite intent in mind that it is to spring up within.

JHS So we would be helped in view of the passage: “for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and boast in Christ Jesus, and do not trust in flesh”, Philippians 3: 3.

SMcC That links on with what we have here, for it is not terms of theology we are primarily engaged with. In the service of God we are governed, of course, by the light that governs the position, and we are intelligent in what we do, but then we worship by the Spirit of God. That is what is in mind here, that the great power springing up within our souls, liberating us from all that sin has produced inwardly, has that in mind.

LES Do you not think we should be concerned at the rapidity with which the work of God would come into its own in its proper normal setting? Do you not feel that we are too long in coming into these things, because we do not allow the Spirit’s service in a negative way, the moral cleansing in which He delights to serve, to have its right and proper place?

SMcC I am sure what you say is important. One of the most interesting and affecting things to watch is the development of the work of God in persons, to see how quickly it comes about in some. Some persons will come right out of the world, with an upbringing and circumstances and environment that were altogether against them. The work of God takes place and it develops and it is amazing the change, even their external appearance becomes refined and their language is enriched, because of the development of the work of God in them.

UG It says in Chronicles that David longed that someone would give him to drink from the water of the well in Bethlehem, and how these three mighty men quickly respond to that longing. Should there not be that longing with us in our readiness to respond to the longings of Christ?

SMcC I think we want to get a sense of divine longings. It would help us in the service to see that divine Persons are yearning and longing for what is the fruit of grace in our souls, to express itself. If younger ones could get a sense of that, what liberation there would be for them inwardly in it. It is not a question of how much we can say, or the way we can say it; it is a question of the expression of the work of God in us.

WBG If desire springs up in our souls through the divine proposal the way will soon be cleared for us, will it not?

SMcC Just so. Now as we have been speaking about reticence in taking part, we may just have a word now as to those who actively take part. There is great need for concern amongst us that our part should be in the power of the Spirit. That is, it should be marked by what we have here. We may get accustomed to taking part without seeing to it that our worship is by the Spirit of God. If it were so with us that we were in the gain of the fountain of water springing up into eternal life, there would be great freshness and variety in a spiritual way in the contributions that might be made to the service of God.

JAK What is the import of the order in John 4? First, the Lord speaks of the fountain of water springing up, then the adjustment that seems necessary, and then the bringing in of worship.

SMcC I think the Lord is concerned first of all about us individually in view of the assembly. There is no doubt at all that behind the great matter in John 4 is the assembly. In chapter 3: 35 it says “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. Now that is to be noted. Then immediately the fourth chapter comes on to view and a woman is the subject of it, as the object of the service of the Son of God, who has had all things put in His hands. It is striking that a woman should come on to view, showing that the assembly is in mind in the first great thought of the administration in the economy. The Lord begins with her first of all as to the positive side in proposing the living water, enlarging and emphasising the thought of divine gift. Romans does that, as we saw in the first reading. Romans emphasises and enlarges on divine gift to begin with and then it proceeds to the experimental matter, involving sin and the principle of sin operating as it comes out here. The Lord proceeds to show how this woman can be adjusted inwardly in regard to the operating principle of sin, and then in regard to the service of God. Romans 8 brings it on to our view in the reference to the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Ques As a result of the water flowing within those who are sitting down, would there be spontaneous ‘Amens’ to what is being said?

SMcC That is very important. There is really nothing more taxing when you get up and take part and do not hear an ‘Amen’. It is almost flattening! Where all the brethren are in the gain of the water springing up into eternal life, you will find an immediate responsive action amongst all the brethren, the sisters as well; especially when younger brethren take part, we want to encourage them all we can. Supposing they say something wrong, do not get after them immediately and try and adjust them. The system will take care of that, you know. After all, we have all had to learn. If a young brother takes part and makes a wrong expression, as long as it does not involve bad doctrine, let us leave it for the moment. Next time he takes part he may not say the same thing. We want to see that there is power in the environment, in the system, to support any responsive movement and priesthood will regulate the matter of intelligence and other things as the service proceeds. We are not referring to older ones who should know better.

LES The ‘Amens’ are not only in the way of encouragement, but it is really part of the living character of the system.

SMcC That is it. So that if a brother takes part in the service of God and mentions the right hand of God - why can you not heartily say, Amen? You may say, The right hand of God brings in distance, and it really does not fit in to the nearness of the family relationship. But then, in the general scope of the truth, the right hand of God is right. Hebrews enlarges on it. In Leviticus you see that all adjustment is in the system through the priesthood. There is always power in the priesthood to take account of anything that might be extraneous.

LB It says: “All the people said, Amen!” 1 Chronicles 16: 36.

SMcC It is a great thing that all should say, Amen. It enters into the service of God. We may not have thought of that, but the Amen enters into the service of God.

ABM'N I suppose the ‘Amen’ would be as spontaneous as any other audible expression in the service.

SMcC It would. Maybe we do not say, Amen, because we are not listening to what the brother says. We may be thinking of something else. Some of us who take part may be thinking about what we are going to say, and miss what the brother is saying, when he is really expressing what is in the system, as on his feet. The brother that is on his feet is a vehicle for the conveyance of the resident wealth in the realm, the wealth that is in the sisterhood as well as the brotherhood.

Rem It is what flows from the assembly.

SMcC That is it.

UG I was wondering if it is helpful to see the way the ‘Selahs’ and ‘Amens’ come into the psalms, in relation to our worship.

SMcC There area lot of ‘Amens’ in the psalms. You will always find that in David’s system there was no lack of ‘Amens’. You do not read of ‘Amens’ in Saul’s system. I doubt whether there is one ‘Amen’ mentioned in Saul’s regime, but David’s service is marked by ‘Amens’. Where you have what is Davidic you will get ‘Amens’; where you get what is Sauline there will be an absence of ‘Amens’.

Now this matter of the Giver of the living water is a very fine glory of Christ, and we want to be built up in our souls in regard to it. We want to see how the Lord gives the living water in view of our being set free inwardly.

JHS Would it be right to think of Rebecca, as she appears to the servant, as illustrative of this fountain of water springing up?

SMcC I am sure it would. She is one of the brightest types and illustrations we have of it, in the Old Testament. It shows how divine Persons, in type, are affected by that kind of thing. We have been speaking about the ‘Amens’, how the brethren are affected; but we want to think of how divine Persons are affected as the expression of this comes on to Their view. We may say, Well, They know what is within us. Of course, that is so. But surely that is not everything? They want to see what is in us coming out. That is the great divine intent, that what is in us should come out.

Rem “Let me hear thy voice”, Song of Songs 2: 14.

SMcC In regard to Rebecca, it was the servant, suggesting typically the Holy Spirit, who would know all that marks her inwardly. The Spirit knows every one of us. He has had to do with us from new birth right onward. He knows all that marks us, but we are to understand and be affected by the fact that divine Persons are affected by what comes on to Their view in expression, and not just from the standpoint of Their omniscience as divine Persons.

JAK Would that be borne out in the statement “the man was astonished”, Genesis 24: 21?

SMcC That is what I am thinking of. Divine Persons are greatly affected by the work of God in the saints, as it comes into expression and especially as to this matter of the change - the wonderful change that comes about in the believer: “the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. This links on with the thought of mystery, for the world does not understand it nor know it. It says, “shall become in him”; it is what is in him. Elsewhere we get the water going out, which the world would be able to take account of in regard to the gospel testimony,

but here it is the mystery involved in what takes place in the believer.

JHS In regard to Rebecca we should note how readily she responds to the request of the servant - she says, “Drink, my lord!”

SMcC That is a word for all of us. You feel for yourself the tendency is to get sluggish spiritually. We know how easy it is to get sluggish naturally, but it is very easy to get sluggish spiritually. We therefore want to be in the gain of the living water that Christ gives, so that we are marked by alacrity and immediate response in our movements to divine Persons.

LES Does it not hinge upon “if thou knewest”, and then, “who it is”?

SMcC It brings in the greatness of the Source of the giving, because the Lord links it on with God, “If thou knewest the gift of God”. Of course He is God Himself; the first verse of the gospel tells us that. But then He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water”. I believe that really resolves itself amongst us in assembly service. If we really knew who was there and whom we have to do with, we would not refrain from responding.

Ques This thought of a fountain, that would be an impossibility to keep silent; it is springing up.

SMcC If it is such a joy to those who are older to hear the faintest expression of the work of God in a person, what must it be to divine Persons - because it is Their work? The earlier you get on your feet and take part actively and audibly in the service the better.

JHS Do not the emblems help us as to who it is?

SMcC They do. It is the love of such a Person that is before us in that way. Now the gift of living water in John 4 involves power in the believer’s soul, but when we come in John 5 to the Lord, as the Quickener, it is more than power. It is a more subtle thought than power and it involves nature. It involves that the believer is made to live in the divine nature. The act of quickening is therefore a great matter in our souls. It is not new birth. Quickening in new birth is the sovereign act of the Holy Spirit on a living, responsible person, but quickening, as presented in John 5, is not the sovereign act on a living responsible person, but the sovereign act on a dead person. A person who is really morally in death is brought by divine quickening into life. He is made to live, and to fill out, in the joy and blessedness of that life, the relationships into which, through grace, he is introduced.

LES Does this involve the understanding of our intimate links with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? It would involve really the whole current matter of Christianity?

SMcC It would, and this matter of quickening should greatly affect us, because no other family in God’s universe will know this kind of quickening. This quickening is distinctive to the present dispensation. The wicked dead, while they will be raised, and in their bodies appear before God and be consigned to the lake of fire under the wrath of God for ever, have no such thing as quickening in this relation in regard to them. This quickening has to do with an inward sovereign act of a divine Person and it supposes the presence of the Spirit.

LES Would you say a word as to how you link the thought of quickening, relative to the Holy Spirit, with new birth?

SMcC The believer is made to live in a potential way, in a new way; but it is not life in regard to nature and relationships as are contemplated in John 5 and Ephesians 2. It is more an act by which the person is changed and affected in a new way throughout, in his links with God. Quickening is in that relation and links on with what we have in Ezekiel in regard to Israel prior to the millennium. The quickening is linked with the new birth in the act upon Israel before the millennium is introduced.

Ques What is the difference between the dead in verses 21 and 25?

SMcC “For even as the Father raises the dead and quickens them, thus the Son also quickens whom he will”. The raising of the dead there is the literal act of resurrection. Even the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. That is actual death. But then, in verse 25, we have those that are morally dead, not physically dead. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that have heard shall live”. That has a bearing now on persons who are morally dead. Actually the rapture will involve the same thing. But it has a moral force in that those that hear the voice of the Son of God live.

Ques Would ‘dead’ in verse 25 be linked with state?

SMcC Oh. I think so. It links with verse 24, which refers to the state of death and verse 25 to the persons who are in that state.

LES Going back for a moment in regard to what we have said as to quickening, in John 3, as to being born anew, it would be flowing out of the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. That is what you have in mind as to the change.

SMcC Things are there potentially, in principle, in new birth. But when a child is born and grows up in the environment of relationships and the operation of nature, it is made to live in another relation. It is made to live in an environment of love, in the intelligent understanding and appreciation of the relationships that it is in. And that is John 5.

Ques Is the woman as she comes to the well in John 4 a type of one that is born again?

SMcC Well, the work of God takes place in her. Something happens as she is under the hand of the Son of God, and as it happens the Lord immediately begins to take account of her as a subject of the work of God. There is no doubt at all that she is a subject of the work of God.

Rem That is shown in the fact that she responded soon to the Lord’s word.

SMcC She ‘hedges’, like we all do, at first; when probing comes we try to throw up a screen, as she did. The Lord said to her, “Go, call thy husband, and come here. The woman answered and said, I have not a husband”. That might have been true to a certain extent but it was misleading and we are very guilty of that at times. We may say something that has a part of the truth in it, but it is calculated to mislead. It is a terrible thing among the brethren, when a person says something that has a part of the truth in it, but he or she says it to misdirect the brethren. That is what Ephesians 4 calls lying. We might say later, Well, what I said was true to a certain extent but then if I said it to misdirect the thoughts of those I said it to, I am lying. That is what Scripture calls lying and it is a serious thing. But the Lord operates with her, so the work of God comes right into view. She says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. Only one in whom the work of God had come to light could express it in that way.

Ques Are not these words, hearing and believing, very important?

SMcC I would say they are.

Rem The woman hears and moves rapidly. I am thinking of the importance of hearing and believing.

SMcC Hearing my word, that is Christ’s word. “He that hears my word” means a person who is prepared to be regulated by the word of Christ, by the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ comes into this matter. The Lord says, “he that hears my word, and believes”, it is a state of active faith in the person. That character of person has life eternal. But this quickening is a very real matter because it is the great secret of assembly service, that the life that enters into assembly service is real life spiritually. It is not an imagination of the mind, but we are quickened in spiritual life, in the life of Christ as risen. We should be able to reach within ourselves in assembly experience, and lay hand spiritually on that life and its operations amongst us and within us, because it is a real matter.

Ques Does a quickened scene come into view in John 12?

SMcC I suppose it would. That is, there are persons there who have had to do with death, and they move now in a realm where there has been complete victory over death.

WBG It comes about by the voice of the Son of God.

JHS Does Hezekiah give us the thought in alluding to the living praising as he did that day?

SMcC Just so; it is by quickened persons. The service of God is a service of life and flows out of what is living, from those who are living spiritually. The actual life of Christ in which they are quickened is a real thing which is substantial spiritually and is experienced in the assembly.

JHS So is there some advantage negatively in being quickened out of a state of death, involving nothing carried over that would be introduced as though it was of any value?

SMcC It is important to see that, because it is “passed out of death into life”. It is a very definite statement that we are out of it. In the assembly we are in a deathless realm; death has no influence or power there. It is a wonderful thing to think of, dear brethren, that as we come out of the world where death reigns, and we come into the assembly, we come into a deathless realm, a realm where death has no power because the Son of God has held up its power.

JHS So that what is quickened will be unaffected by disembodiment.

SMcC Just so. Because what is quickened goes through. What is quickened is what is spiritual and applies eternally.

WBG It is the work of God that is quickened.

SMcC I would prefer to say that it is the person in whom the work of God is, that is quickened, because you could not exactly say that the work of God was in a state of death.

LES “And you, being dead in offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has quickened together with him”, Colossians 2: 13. And then in Ephesians 2: 4: “but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us (we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ”. Has it not in view the idea of association, too?

SMcC Quickening has in mind that you are made to live in divinely-formed relationships and you are at home in them. It is not just light in our minds, being the brethren of Christ and the sons of God. Quickening is an actual operation, a concrete and a perfect operation, in which we are made to live spiritually and we are at home in the wonderful relationships that grace has introduced us into.

LES Therefore we cannot understand nor enjoy what the assembly is according to the divine mind apart from quickening.

SMcC It is important to see that resurrection is not actual at the present time, but quickening is actual. In connection with resurrection faith comes into it, as it says, “ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God”, Colossians 2: 12. But it is never said that we are quickened by faith, because we are not. Quickening is actual.

ABM'N Is that why in verse 25, those three little words, “and now is”, mean so much?

SMcC Whereas resurrection is something we anticipate, quickening we do not anticipate. We anticipate resurrection, but it will take place for us at the rapture when the dead will be raised. We come into it, according to Colossians, by faith. Quickening, as we have it here, we do not anticipate, it is a matter that now is. The thing exists, and the voice of the Son of God bears on that, for it says, “an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that have heard shall live”. The voice of the Son of God particularly bears on the matter of relationships. He has quickened us in relation to them so that we are made to live in them. It is actual, not anticipative.

WBG Is it the voice of One who is enjoying these relationships who calls us into them by quickening?

SMcC In assembly service we do not have to work up our minds to imagine it is a wonderful realm we are in, and to quote and go over in our thoughts Ephesians 1 to know how wonderful it is to be there. Quickening means that we are actually in it, in our spiritual experience, and we are at home in these wonderful relationships, and perfectly at rest in them.

ABM'N “And they that have heard shall live”.

SMcC Just so. Now we may have a word as to John 17. The knowledge of the Lord here, in which we are to be built up, is as the Revealer of the Father: He says, “Righteous Father - and the world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them”. It is very affecting to think of the Lord’s glory in this relation and the building up of our souls in the knowledge of it. Think of the wonderful service He renders to us in making known the Father’s Name as he speaks of it here! All this has in mind the building up of richness and substance in the service of God, for the “I in them” would contemplate what is said in Hebrews 2: “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises” or ‘will I hymn thee’. John 17: 26 links with Hebrews 2: 11, 12.

ABM'N Could this be considered as one of the all things placed in the hands of the Son by the Father?

SMcC I would say so, because earlier He speaks of the Father’s name being given to Him: “And I am no longer in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that they may be one as we”, John 17: 11. Now when He says, “Keep them in thy name which thou hast given me”, the “which thou hast given me”, does not allude to the saints, but to the name. That is the Father’s name was given to Him; He was the Custodian of that name. In that verse it is a question of protection, but in verse 26, the spiritual enrichment of the assembly is in mind: “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known”. That name that was entrusted to Him, He has made known to us, who form the assembly.

ABM'N It all adds to the glories that He has. He is the Revealer of the Father.

SMcC So the last word in Philadelphia to the overcomer is “and my new name”. What does that allude to, but what we have here? It is the Lord’s glory in the mediatorial position as having made God known.

JHS What does “and will make it known” involve?

SMcC John 20.

JHS That does not continue now; it is fulfilled there.

SMcC When the Lord says in John 20, “Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father, and to my God, and your God” that is the “will make it known”. That is complete; there is no repetition of that in the dispensation.

JHS And the name declared in Hebrews, you understand to be the Father’s name.

SMcC According to what J.T. taught, the name in Hebrews 2: 11, 12 is what we have alluded to in John 17: “I have made known unto them thy name, and will make it known”. Hebrews 2 is a question of relationships and what is special. You will always find that what is special is linked with the environment of relationship; while in connection with what is general, the position where relationship is, is not so much emphasised, but the majesty and greatness of what is declared.

WBG So the matter of love coming into this verse would enrich our vessels in view of the service.

SMcC When it says in John 1: 18, “No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”, that is not special, that is general, and it bears on the whole universe, without saying who it bears on. But when you get revelation, it is special, and it bears upon those who are in relationship with God as made known in this wonderful name. John 17 and Hebrews 2 stress relationship, God in the parental relation, and the making known of the name is in that connection.

JHS I think that helps. What is general then would involve the three Persons?

SMcC It would. So that in the service of God we move from the distinctiveness and blessedness of what is special, “my Father, and your Father” - to the glory and majesty of what is general - “my God, and your God”. That God is the God we read of in Genesis 1: 1, “In the beginning God ...”.