Received Up In Glory

RECEIVED UP IN GLORY

1 Timothy 3: 14-16

Luke 2: 10-14; 9: 28-35, 51; 22: 39-46; 24: 36-39, 51

I desire to convey some impression of the moral glory of what God is effecting at the present time in the saints, so that we might be encouraged in the sense of the greatness of what we are having part in. God is conforming His people to Christ. It is encouraging to have a definite view of the end to which God is working, and to be with Him in His working sympathetically.

The apostle in writing to Timothy speaks of “the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”. The house of God is a general idea; the saints are the house of God, the habitation of God by the Spirit, and they are always that. The idea is not limited to when we are assembled together, for the apostle is speaking of the saints universally as the great vessel which God has down here in which His thoughts are known and expressed, and it is, as he says, “the pillar and base of the truth”. That is, the truth is set out and maintained in the assembly on the earth, and it is known nowhere else. Whatever influences have arisen or may arise in the world contrary to the truth, the saints who constitute the assembly stand as the great bulwark against them. On the other hand they support the truth; they are intended themselves to be the exemplification of it. That is an important matter. The more you think about it, the more dignified the position becomes, because the truth is the great point of contest in the world. If you took a map of the world and began to take account of the extent of territory that is coming under the influence of what is opposed to the truth, you would get an impression of the seriousness of the issue. There are large tracts of country in the world which have given up or do not know the truth, and hence it raises the issue as to the truth, and we are here, among other things, for the maintenance of the truth of God.

“Great is the mystery of godliness (or, piety)”. I understand that that suggests that God has been seen as set forth in manhood in the circumstances that obtain in this world. The apostle says that it is a great mystery. God was manifest in flesh in the Person of Jesus. In the very circumstances in which men move, there was the manifestation of God in the way that Jesus went through this world. His dependence on God, His obedience to God, His committal to God’s will, His confidence in God—all brought God into evidence. The great effort of the enemy is to dislodge any true testimony or light as to God, whereas God’s thought is that there should be a true testimony to Himself maintained in men, first in Christ, and then in those who take character from Him. “God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into (or, in) glory”. The whole thing began in glory, as we see in the second of Luke, when the Lord came in in the form of a Babe, the multitude of the heavenly host saying, “Glory to God in the highest”. It began in glory, and it finishes in glory, “received up in glory!” I believe we may say the saints will also be taken up in glory, not in disgrace, or in weakness; they will be taken up as in every way like Christ, and thus fitted for the position, for our names are written in heaven. In Acts 10, the sheet came down from heaven and was taken up into heaven. The assembly will be taken up as morally suited, formed after Christ, for the place to which it already belongs.

These things do not find their vindication on earth—they are not publicly accredited amongst men. It is true that Christ has been preached among the nations, for the name of the Lord Jesus has gone out wherever the sun shines, and yet the extraordinary thing is that He is still rejected, and the testimony has but little place. It is not what is publicly vindicated amongst men, but what is supported by the Spirit of God. We often need, as pursuing a path according to God, to know what it is to be justified by the Spirit, to have the consciousness by the Spirit that we are doing what is right and can then afford to go on, even if we are discredited among men. I draw attention to the moral glory of what shone in Christ, bearing in mind that all that has been presented in Christ, in His manhood here, is intended to become formative in us with a view to features in us that correspond with it.

In the second chapter of Luke we have the wonderful circumstances of the introduction into this scene of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born at Bethlehem, and laid in a manger, because there was no room for Him or for His parents in the inn. At the very outset He is thus seen as outcast, no room for Him, but those who loved Him are given the privilege of sharing that position with Him, a touch of grace, that would from the very outset set out this idea, that God in introducing His thoughts into this world would find no acceptance save among those in whom He had worked. There was no room for them. Immediately we get the idea of glory. There were certain shepherds in the field, “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them”, Luke 2: 9. What had taken place at Bethlehem was at that time unknown to the world at large, and even if it had been known would have been regarded as of no consequence, but the glory of the Lord shone there. When the angel had announced what had taken place, “suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward (or, good pleasure in) men”.

God is to have pleasure in men, men who are of such a character that they set forth God. They do not express their own glory, they express the glory of God in obedience to God, and in various ways that do not commend themselves to man, who loves to be self-sufficient. Man in dependence on God glorifies God; He brings God into display as the One who alone can be trusted. God delights in that order of man; He had it in view at the outset. It needed Him who is God to bring into manhood all the moral excellence that was innate in God, so that there could be an order of man in whom God could find pleasure.

The angel said to the shepherds, “this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger”. A remarkable sign, a sign of the introduction of the Saviour who is Christ the Lord, a sign of the introduction of the greatest thing. The incarnation had been in the mind of God before the earth’s foundations were laid, and now when this wonderful transaction takes place, the sign is a Babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. It means that we are to appreciate smallness and that which is expressive of dependence upon God, introduced into a world in which man has sought to do without God, to make a god of himself, and to establish his own will. We are living in a day when the moral fruits of man’s will are becoming evident on every hand. A babe expresses the idea of complete dependence on God, which is morally glorious in the sight of God. Then “lying in a manger”, means all outside position in regard of this world, though one that is in keeping with God.

Chapter 9 presents the Lord Jesus in prayer, as Luke’s gospel often does. He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray—not that the Lord could not have prayed anywhere, for doubtless His heart was continually turning to God. He said, when He raised Lazarus, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always”, John 11: 41, 42, but here He went up into a mountain to pray. This is intended as pattern for us; our prayer is to be definite, with exercise to escape from hindering elements so as to be free with God. “As he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering”. He took on glory as praying. God delights in a man who is praying. The Lord said to Ananias in regard of Saul of Tarsus, “behold, he prayeth”. Praying was not characteristic of a man who breathed out threatenings and slaughter; something had happened, and the evidence was that Saul was praying. God attaches great value to a praying man.

Then it says, “there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias; who appeared in glory”. Heaven is to be adorned with men formed after Christ, and this present time is the time of formation. Here were men in glory talking with Jesus. It shows their complete suitability to the place; they were talking with Him in glory in the greatest liberty—that is the idea God has before Him. These men are named, and our names, too, are written in heaven, each having his own distinction. Moses and Elias had come under the formative and disciplinary hand of God. Moses spoke unadvisedly with his lips, and as the result of it was debarred from going into the land. He was to take Joshua the son of Nun, and to lay his hands upon him. Moses was to go through the exercise of complete effacement in favour of another. How beautifully he does it, in complete acceptance of God’s perfect will! Such a man is in every way suited to heaven. And so with Elijah, who fled from before Jezebel, prayed against Israel, and said, “I only am left”. Then God took him in hand and made a wind, an earthquake and a fire pass before him, but God was not in the wind, the earthquake or the fire; and then Elijah heard a still small voice, prefiguring the subduing grace of Christ. Elijah was told to go and anoint Hazael king over Syria, and Jehu king over Israel, and Elisha prophet in his stead, 1 Kings 19: 16. He was to accept displacement, but the very fact that there was to be another prophet indicated that God was going on with His people. Elijah went immediately and found Elisha, the man who was to take his place, and he did it heartily as brought into accord with the mind of God. It is such men who can be brought into heaven, who are formed after Christ, and answer to the mind of God. These men are seen in glory. Every feature that has shone in Christ as a Man is morally glorious. God intends that the assembly should take· on every such feature, and present conditions are in God’s hand with that end in view.

In verse 51 it says, “And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”. The time is near when we too shall be received up. The Lord has said, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also”, John 14: 3. What is our attitude in view of it? Whatever it meant to the Lord in the way of suffering, testing or endurance, He would go through to the end. He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. That is the spirit of One who is going to be received up. It is something we are to take character from, whatever the last days may be; let us set our faces in that direction. The support of the Lord and His encouragement will be realised as we do. Jesus is before us as properly belonging to heaven, as morally suited to it; but, having the day of His receiving up in view, He stedfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, where He was to suffer. It is presented as now definitely before His mind and heart as that which was to be carried through to completion.

In chapter 22 we have Luke’s account of Gethsemane, although he does not so describe it. It is called the mount of Olives. In Matthew and Mark it is Gethsemane, which means pressure, and the accounts in those gospels enlarge even more on the severity of the testing than does Luke’s account, which, however, is very touching as bringing out the perfect humanity of Christ, the way in which He felt things. So we find here what was involved in His setting His face to go to Jerusalem. The moment of the completion of God’s will was drawing nigh, and the Lord, as anticipating it, is here encountering Satan. In chapter 4 it says, “when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season”. Now Satan returns, and he brings to bear upon the spirit of the Lord Jesus what was entailed for Him in completing the will of God. The Lord, as feeling it, is found here in prayer. I believe Gethsemane is a pattern for us—not that we ever have anything to go through such as was brought upon the spirit of the Lord Jesus, but here in Gethsemane the Lord is not forsaken of God. He was never forsaken of God except on the cross, during the three hours of darkness. Here He is passing through with God what is extremely testing to Him, and the manner in which He went through is a pattern for us. So He says first to His disciples, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed”. It is the only time when the Spirit of God records that the Lord Jesus kneeled down, and it is suggestive of the intensity of exercise. How beautiful it must have been to God to see His beloved Son in this attitude, kneeling down and praying! How different from the spirit of the world! This attitude, provided it is not done as a mere formality, is expressive itself of complete dependence on God. He says, “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done”. It is a beautiful combination of liberty to ask that the thing might be removed, and at the same time the expression of absolute subjection to God’s will. The gospel narratives will bear constant meditation, because moral excellence shines out here in perfection in the way in which things are felt according to God, but felt in a spirit of unquestioning obedience. There is no rebellion, no resentment; perfect liberty to ask for it to be removed, but at the same time absolute obedience, not as compelled, but as delighting in God’s will. Then we read, “there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly”, a remarkable expression in regard of the Lord Jesus, showing that there are different measures of intensity of exercise in the things of God. Here we come to a point where it says, “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground”, such was the depth of His feelings. He is strengthened and rises up from prayer. He has passed through it with God, and now He goes forward to carry through God’s will. We see the true glory of manhood showing itself in dependence on God, God coming into expression in man in adverse circumstances, so that God is glorified as man is marked by obedience and dependence. We are to appreciate the glory of all this, for in that which is testing, if we are with God in it, God is working out with His people what is morally glorious and fit for heaven.

In chapter 24 the Lord is seen in resurrection, the same Jesus of the gospel, but now known in resurrection, and to be known in heaven. The same Jesus, morally unaffected by death and resurrection, is to be seen and known in a glorious condition. “It is I myself”, He says, “handle me, and see”. How touching that must have been for the hearts of the disciples? They had seen the Lord in death, and put in the grave, but now they see Him living. All that we appreciate of the moral excellence of Christ as portrayed in the gospels is there unchanged, now received up in glory. So it says, “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven”. What about Caesar Augustus? What about Pontius Pilate? What about Annas and Caiaphas?

What about other men who figure in this world’s history? They have not been carried up into heaven, for they are not morally fitted for it, but the saints are to be carried up, as Christ was. Heaven is to be filled with what is morally glorious, what takes its pattern from heaven, and is carried up into heaven. We by the grace of God have been taken up to have part in this. May the Lord open our eyes to see these things! The one thing that is to be desired is to be formed after Christ. May God bless His word!

 

GUILDFORD

1^st March 1941

From Words of Grace and Comfort

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