Christ In Glory
CHRIST IN GLORY
Genesis 21: 1-10; 45: 9-11; 46: 28-30
I desire to speak of the importance of keeping ourselves in the light of Christ in glory. These scriptures present that idea from three different aspects, but it is of all importance that our minds should be in that direction: the Spirit has been given us with that in view. It says of Stephen that “being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus”. The glory of God implies that it is impossible for God to be defeated by evil. He has shown that, where the greatest evil was demonstrated, divine glory shone out, divine love was expressed, and divine power operated in raising up Christ from the dead, and He sets forth in Christ in glory the full thoughts of His heart in grace for man. That is, I believe, the glory of God, that He cannot be overcome by evil, but always overcomes evil with good, and it is a great thing for us to know that good is in the ascendancy, that good has triumphed. The Lord maintains His place in the presence of God unchangingly, and the Spirit has taken up His abode in us to support us, so that, at any time and in any circumstances, whether by day or by night, the believer is entitled to be in the light of Christ where He is, and understanding by the Spirit something of the grace that is involved in His present position. Saul of Tarsus was converted by a word from Christ in glory and saw Jesus there; he says, “have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” 1 Cor 9: 1. He saw Him there in glory—a marvellous thing that a newly converted soul should get such impressions at the outset, impressions that coloured him, both personally and in his ministry, right through. The impression of the light he received at that moment steadily increased with him, so that before Agrippa he speaks of it as “a light above the brightness of the sun”, completely transcending all that the sun could light up here on earth.
I begin with Abraham, viewing him as a model believer, the father of us all. In Genesis 2, we come to the point where Isaac is born, and, not only born, but weaned, and it says, “Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned”. The Lord Himself says, referring, I doubt not, to this occasion, “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad”, John 8: 56.
The epistle to the Galatians helps us as to the bearing of this incident. It is a question of our being fully in the light and joy of Christ as the One in whom God sets out His thoughts in sonship. God’s thought had always been the Son born according to promise. Isaac was weaned, the child according to promise was there, the son was before his eyes, and Abraham could now take account of something actually brought in according to promise. That is exactly what is before us as we take account of Christ where He is. It is not now a question simply of God’s thoughts to which He is committed in the way of promise, but it is God’s thoughts brought in and actually seen in a Man. He is in the relationship of Son, He is in the condition of sonship, a glorious Man in the presence of God, loved by the Father and responsive to Him, as God says, “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son”, Heb 1: 5. The reciprocal affection proper to sonship is set out in Christ in the presence of God, and God has brought it in as that which He means us to come into.
Paul is full of this thought in writing to the Galatians. He says, “when God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations”. He not only revealed Him to him, but in him, so that the very heart of Paul embraced that which was presented to him, and Paul himself expressed the liberty and joy of sonship according to God’s thoughts. In chapter 2 he says: “I am crucified with Christ”—that is, he understood that the crucifixion of Christ before God meant his crucifixion, and he took it up whole-heartedly “and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”, and, in order that that might be maintained, the secret spring of his life as a believer was that he lived “by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. That does not mean simply that he trusted God, but he lived on the principle of faith, his mind and heart engaged with Christ where He is. “The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”. The love of Christ had served him to set him free from himself, that he might have the Son of God Himself as his object. Then in the third chapter he says, “ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, and in chapter 4: “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship”, and “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. God has, in keeping with His own thoughts of grace for us, given us the power by which we may live in them.
I believe that this is typified in this incident in Abraham’s history. The son according to promise had come into view and he was weaned—he stands out by himself. And now Abraham is tested, as the true character of Ishmael came to light. He represents legality, the fruit of a system of law, and he mocked. It is religious flesh, what is produced on legal lines. Sarah said, “Cast out this handmaid and her son; for the son of this handmaid shall not inherit with my son—with Isaac”. Isaac means Laughter, and Sarah says, “God has made me laugh: all that hear will laugh with me”. The bringing in of Isaac was intended to produce exuberance, a spirit of buoyancy, amongst the family of faith; it is a question of bringing in God’s choicest thoughts. Abraham was tested, for he wanted to keep Ishmael, but the word is, “Cast out this handmaid and her son”. God honours Sarah’s remark by calling it “scripture”; she represents the Spirit of God maintaining the mind of God for the moment. Believers must insist on the refusal of everything that would bring in a lower standard than the light of divine grace as set out in Christ. I need not say that if we are set on this line it will not make us careless as to the flesh. Christ has reached His place in glory by way of death, and that the death of the cross, and by way of burial, and the Spirit of God is always faithful to the cross of Christ. The two things go together; it is morally impossible to appreciate and rejoice in the grace of God and be going on with what gives licence to the flesh. The more we apprehend the spirit of grace that is presented in Christ, the more definite we shall be in self-judgment. It has been truly said that the man who most truly judges himself is the man who does not think of himself at all. When one speaks of being engaged with Christ, one does not forget that there is a whole range of interests and glories which the Spirit of God would open up before us. Christ is Himself the centre of everything, but there is a vast range of things under His hand. “The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God”, 1 Cor 2: 10. There is the assembly and all that is connected with the testimony here and the service of God among the saints; but, if we would be maintained in liberty of soul and joy in the Spirit, it is essential that our outlook should be towards Christ in glory, apprehending in Him the fulness of divine grace as He maintains it before our eyes.
I pass from that to Joseph, and Jacob in relation to him. Jacob also, like Abraham, is a typical believer, who is taken up in divine sovereignty for blessing, as we all are, but taken in hand by God Himself so that he finishes as in every way equal to the position God has given him. We see Jacob passing the last seventeen years of his life without any complaint, blessing his sons, blessing his grandsons, and blessing Pharaoh. If God could do this with Jacob, He can do it with every one of us.
In this section Jacob had to discover that he could not be maintained while living in his own things. It was not a question here of living in evil things, but the great danger with him was of living in what is natural, so that we hear him saying at one point in this section of his life, “Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin! All these things are against me”. He has been made to feel that on the natural line everything was going wrong, one thing after another being taken from him, and there were also conditions of famine. Then the light comes to him of Joseph’s glory in Egypt. It is a great thing for us to understand, that there is a sphere here on earth under the hand of Christ, which the land of Goshen represents, where there is abundance of food, where there is the light of God’s thoughts, and it is for us to find our life and all our interests there. So Joseph sends word and he says, “Thus says thy son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near to me, thou, and thy sons, and thy sons’ sons, and thy sheep, and thy cattle, and all that thou hast. And there will I maintain thee”. Jacob was to transfer all his interests from that which held him previously, to find his life in connection with the sphere of interests where Joseph was supreme. That for us, I believe, is the assembly; God is calling upon us to understand that, while the natural has its place, He is going on with what is spiritual. The natural is not that which is before God, although we prove His mercy in it and it is a practical comfort and support to us as in this world, but God is going on with a spiritual order of things. The domination of Christ will shortly extend to the whole universe, but for the moment there is a sphere where He is supreme, and God would have us find our life and all our interests there. All Jacob had was to move over, and to be devoted to this sphere of interests where Joseph was. Joseph says, “there will I maintain thee”. The only way to escape poverty of soul is to be wholly and fully committed to what God is going on with at the present time, and the ministry the Lord Jesus is giving in relation to it. It is the one thing that will preserve us from poverty of soul and from being dejected and unhappy. Christ is sustaining much in this world. There is a sphere where God is served and His testimony carried forward, and where there is “love amongst ourselves” and all the support it affords—and, as we give ourselves to it without reserve, we shall be supported in our souls and encouraged.
I believe that is what is typically set forth in this incident in Jacob’s history. So it says, “And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba. And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba; and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father ... and came to Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him”. Jacob is spoken of as Israel now; he has come into accord with God’s thoughts. lie says, “Now let me die, after I have seen thy face, since thou still livest”. He has come to complete satisfaction and rest of heart. He did not die then; he lived another seventeen years, but they were years of spiritual power and liberty, and he ends as a worshipper, finding his life typically in the great sphere of interests that is here under the hand of Christ. He is Head of His body, the assembly, and the more we are committed to it the more we shall be sustained in life and freshness to the end.
In closing, I refer to the apostle Paul, whom I always think of and refer to with pleasure, particularly in Philippians, where he is so happily alongside of us. He is not speaking here as an apostle; he writes to the Philippians as a bondman of Jesus Christ, and we hear him saying, “Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself”; a beautiful touch of humility. He is alongside of us, though we are far behind him, and his mind is in one direction only. The point in this epistle is that he has Christ in glory before him, perhaps not exactly as the One in whom sonship is set forth, although I would not exclude that, but rather as One in whom the moral excellence of manhood that rightly goes along with sonship is set forth. It is a question of the Man Christ Jesus filling his vision, and the moral excellence of that Man as traced in chapter 2. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. His mind is filled with the excellence that is in Christ Jesus, and having traced His downward path he says, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him ... In Christ in exaltation we see God’s estimate of the moral excellence that was resident in Jesus and is resident in Him still. Now in Christ Jesus God sets forth His calling on high in regard of us. God has nothing less in mind for His own satisfaction, as well as for our joy, than that we are to be in Christ. One rejoices in the prospect of being for ever free from all the wretchedness and vileness of the flesh. When once it is seen alongside Christ we see it in its true character, we abhor it, and our great desire is to be found in Christ. At the end of Paul’s career we find him, not occupied with his own service or greatness, but with Christ as the One in whom is to be apprehended God’s calling on high for him and all the saints. So he says, “what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord ... that I may win Christ”, or, as it might read, “have Christ for my gain”. You might ask Paul what he was going to have as compensation. He says, I shall have Christ as my gain, and that is enough to satisfy me.
I believe we see the effect of this in chapter 1, in the account he gives us of his circumstances. He was in prison, unjustly so, and, as a righteous man, he would feel the injustice of his position. And, far worse than that, there were certain brethren even seeking to add tribulation to his bonds, preaching Christ of contention—I suppose they were preaching a popular gospel, whereas Paul delighted in the cross. But how does he meet it? He says, I rejoice that Christ is preached, and it was his earnest expectation and hope “that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body”. It means, I believe, that the life of moral excellence of the Lord Jesus, marked by obedience right down to death, and that the death of the cross, had so laid hold of the apostle that he wanted to come into conformity with it, and, the more trying the circumstances, the more God would have the mind that was in Christ Jesus developed and expressed in Paul. That is what God has in mind for every one of us, that the moral excellence of Jesus should come into expression in every circumstance.
We can all take up the service of praying for one another, especially as we see one another tried in spirit in our circumstances, but let us do it in intelligence in the mind of God, not just praying that the pressure should be removed, but rather having in mind that God has in view to bring about great things through it and that we might be strengthened in our minds to go through. God has nothing less before Him for His people than that they should be found in Christ. So Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do ... I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus”. He had his mind in that direction and we may be sure that thus he proved divine support in his exercises. So he says, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you”.
We see in Abraham and in Jacob and in Paul examples of those who are rejoicing in Christ in glory, viewing Him in different lights, and I believe God would encourage us to have our minds in that direction, and, if we have, we shall find the Spirit will be glad to support us in these exercises, for He is here to exalt Christ. We shall feel the pressure—“sorrowful”, it says, “but always rejoicing”—but, at the same time, the more we go through things with God in the light of His calling, the more God will see that everything is turned to account for the perfecting of His work in His people.
SIDCUP
1st February 1941
From Words of Grace and Comfort
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