ETERNAL LIFE
[p. 331] ETERNAL LIFE
We have life in divine power before we get into the state proper to it. Eternal life is with the Father (where God lives), no angel could have it. Outside the range of sense entirely: occupation with the Lord brings you into it — “beside myself”, the apostle says. ‘Water’ — purified by His death; a clean removal of all from God’s sight. ‘Blood’ — sins all gone. You have to keep up what is thus absolutely true of you. The result is you live in another region, a circle in which the Father lives and in which Christ ever lived and which He never left. He always was in keeping with the scene to which He belonged. John 3 is the earthly thing. In the millennium the earthly man is not swept away: “the law written in his heart”. “Death to the world” does not apply to the earthly family — we belong to One rejected here and His honours are ours. Indwelling Spirit characterises the heavenly family. You cannot have eternal life apart from its source: He (Christ) is the true God and eternal life. Eternal life never is said to be in the believer.
Romans 4; 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 Righteousness was perfect in the resurrection of Christ. The Holy Spirit is connected with the glory of Christ.
(1) Paul’s ministry — righteousness and presentation in glory. He begins with Christ’s death, his culminating point is Christ’s glory.
(2) John’s ministry — Christ coming down, eternal life manifested here. Eternal life — nearness to the Father. We are brought near to the Father in the life of the Son.
[p. 332] Sin — the will of man; 1 John 3. Righteousness — the rights of God.
The death of Christ enabled God to come in where sin was. I submit to the death of Christ, and am entitled to all the results of that death. I am cleared in the ‘righteousness of God’. The offering of Christ left God a debtor. (Israel does not get justification, but forgiveness of sins.)
John 12, Son of man lifted up — separated from the world and sinful man, that he might accomplish the will of God. He took this place Himself, that He might do so and He also bore the judgment. The believer is in the place of His death; and apart from the sin in the world, his place here is fellowship with His death. He has to carry out the judgment of the cross in himself, to “keep the feast”. Christ never took afterwards another place in this world. “Outside the camp”, “unto Him” — our place.
We need to apprehend the place the Lord Jesus took here in order to fulfil the will of God. Knowing present acceptance with God, I have power to walk here in the power of His death. The whole of the present period is only as one moment to God (2 Peter 3) and it is characterised by the death of Christ. How can you sanction in yourself what was judged at the cross?
1 Corinthians 8: 5, 6; 12:4-6; Ephesians 4:4-6 The relative position in the economy of grace of divine Persons, not their eternal place.
Christ is first presented to us as man — it is afterwards we learn who He is as the eternal Son.
‘The Lord’ is a title of administration and it applies to us in our responsibility down here. His authority over us is absolute: we are here in His name and for His will. In many things we have to [p. 333] exercise judgment, but in the word you have divine principles to guide you. All must be consistent with the Lord’s will. Paul says, “I think I have the mind of the Lord”, etc. Many things come in in connection with which God has no particular mind and in these things we are tested. If all your things are subordinate to His things you can ask His guidance. In James “If the Lord will” comes in to test us. Christ administers all for “the will of God”. Ephesians 4:
“One faith” — the revelation of God’s will.
“One baptism” — you are cut off from all here.
The Lord is out of this sphere: not so God (cf. Philippians 4). You can go to God in every detail. The christian has the Holy Spirit and has to exercise spiritual judgment. If you teach children principles, they will then know how to act in detail. Turn to the Lord to keep your spirit quiet amid difficulties here. The Lord concerns Himself greatly about you, not about your circumstances: as ‘Priest’, on our side for sympathy, support, etc., that we may not be disqualified to exercise our priesthood.
It is important to see the order of things in which Christ is Lord. Ephesians 6, you come out “strong in the Lord”, etc. If we always had divine guidance in so many words, direct, there would be no exercises at all — everything would be right.
In Revelation things that are, etc. — nothing about the world. Change in chapter 4 and from chapter 5 onwards the political world.
Two things occupy ‘the Lord’. The testimony (as Lord) and the sanctuary (as priest).
In Ephesians it is remarkable there is not a single statement that Christ is God. The epistles are occupied with the work of God in us. You begin with the Spirit — the Spirit is life; Romans 8. You have everything in the Spirit. In Ephesians all is effectuated in you.
[p. 334] Ques What do you understand by quickening? Made to live in the love of God?
FER The Spirit takes the place on the part of God, of shedding abroad the love of God in the heart, but I understand quickening to be the birth and nourishing of divine affections in the heart of the christian; I would say it is the birth and origin of spiritual affections in the heart of the christian. The Spirit so brings the heart of the christian under the influence of the love of God, that He creates a response to it, He awakens spiritual affections in the heart of the believer. Here (2 Corinthians 3), it speaks of the Spirit giving life.
You may depend upon it, the ministry of the new covenant is a point of the very last importance, it is that that the bulk of christians needs to know — what the disposition of God is towards them, and I am very sure they will not go on to reconciliation until they know that. You will never get confidence, I am sure, except by the knowledge of love. Nothing short of that will beget confidence, and until there is confidence you are not prepared to accept reconciliation, for that means that all is for God, and no one is prepared to accept that until there is confidence and affection as to the fruit of the knowledge of God.
Ques What glory was it that Moses veiled?
FER Well, in going in to God there was a certain effulgence; if a man goes in to God, you may be sure he does not come out as he went in. The glory came out in connection with the second tables; after God had announced that He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy — that is, He declared His sovereignty. God did not allow the people to see to the end of that to be abolished. What was seen in the face of Moses was typical of the Lord; there is no doubt about it, that the glory in the face of Moses really looked on to a glorified Christ. There was in Him the end, the determination of everything for God,
“[p. 335] beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face”; for us everything is settled and centred — it is settled and centred in the Son of God. It is not simply that He is the perfect expression of what is in the mind of God for us, but for God everything is settled and centred there. In the Old Testament, whatever might have been the disposition of God towards a man, it could not be expressed — nothing then was secured for God. But now when we come to the New Testament I see everything is secured for God, and therefore in Christ there is the perfect expression of all that is the mind and heart of God towards us.
Luke 14 and 15 It is easy to see that Luke 15 is a continuation of chapter 14. I need not say that the chapters are often a hindrance in reading God’s word, they may be sometimes convenient but the subject is often broken off by the division into chapters. Read the last few verses of chapter 14 and see the connection with chapter 15. As I was saying last week, chapter 14 gives us the house and chapter 15 gives us the guest, or the fitness required to be in the house.
In chapter 14 we have first Christ coming into man’s house, and then God’s house, and those who are compelled to go in. At the beginning of the gospel of Luke we have peace on earth, and at the end peace in heaven. When Christ was born it was peace on earth, then if you read chapter 10:17-20, the Lord says, “I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”. It was not that Satan was then cast out, I do not think he is cast out yet, but the Lord is speaking prophetically, as it were; they were to rejoice that their names were written in heaven. Satan came into this world and corrupted man, but those who had been corrupted [p. 336] by Satan had their names written in heaven — it was God’s answer to the work of Satan. Through the death of Christ, God has annulled the power of Satan and there is no distance from God, there is peace in heaven.
At the end of Luke Christ lifts up His hands and blesses them and is carried up into heaven; it is not now so much that our names are written in heaven, but there is a Man there before God, there is peace in heaven. He went up into heaven and received gifts for men. I notice the word ‘receive’; Psalm 68 puts it, “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive”, that is the power of Satan annulled, and not only that “Thou hast received gifts in Man” and its adds “yea, for the rebellious also” — this goes on to the millennium, it no doubt refers to rebellious Israel — that the Lord God might dwell among them — Israel in the millennium. Luke 14 the house, Luke 15 what makes me suitable for the house. The first two parables I only just glance at. What strikes me here is the joy in heaven when there is the first movement in the sinner’s heart. No doubt in the parable of the lost sheep we get the work of Christ and in the next the work of the Spirit, but in both it is the first movement in the sinner’s heart which gives joy in heaven. The parable of the prodigal is another thing, it is not here the being sought but the reception. I can very well imagine the prodigal thought he could cater for himself in the far country, and the first thing which was used to bring him to himself was providential circumstances, a famine. There are three steps in his history, and he is a representative man. We see the process of the divine work in his soul and we all go through this process although there may be different ways of learning it:— First, his eyes are opened. Second, he received reconciliation. Third, he is brought into the house.
[p. 337] His eyes are opened through the famine; I know many a young man in the world, so long as he has health and strength and money it may be, he has plenty of friends, the world likes those who can be useful to it, but if he lose his health and strength he loses most of his friends, too. Then he receives reconciliation — but he is not in the house yet; he must be made suitable for the house. A great deal was made years ago of faith and standing and they are very important, but what are the use of faith and standing if there is no experience? Undoubtedly the best robe is Christ; it is spoken of as the best robe because there is no better, and in the Father’s house it is all Christ — Christ is the Object of the Father’s heart. Do not say the Father’s house is going to heaven; it is for us now; of course, we shall be actually in the Father’s house, but it is true now.