HOW SPIRITUAL LIFE IS DEVELOPED
[p. 12] HOW SPIRITUAL LIFE IS DEVELOPED
John 1:4; John 12: 23, 24; Judges 14: 5 - 9; Judges 15: 15 - 20; Judges 16:1 - 3; Judges 16:22
I wanted to bring out from these scriptures something as to life, according to the manner in which it is developed in our dispensation. Life necessarily enters into all dispensations. When the Lord said, “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10: 10). He had reference to ourselves; we have everything in abundance and especially life. John, having this great subject in view in his gospel, introduces the subject of life immediately, and he does so, not in a theoretical way, but in a concrete way; that is, as it had taken form in a Man — in One, indeed, of whom he had already said that He was in the beginning with God and that He was God, and that without Him not one thing received being which had received being. So that His Person is carefully guarded and asserted, before John introduces this great subject as having its beginning in Christ: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”.
It is well, dear brethren, to be reminded in approaching such a great subject, which has its beginning in Christ, that we should be on our guard in regard of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, for on every hand He is attacked. Even those who profess to love Him and regard Him in esteem, are letting down the bars and admitting the agents of the enemy, of whom the apostle says, “his ministers ... transform themselves as ministers of righteousness”, 2 Corinthians 11: 15. One is reminded of Joab, David’s captain, a sagacious man, one who would stand up for, as we say, the fundamentals, but who, being selfish, and ambitious, and perceiving that David’s heart longed for Absalom,
[p. 13] devised a way whereby the king would be induced to recall the banished murderer. The scheme, indeed, was the gospel; the gospel was to be employed to bring about the recall of the murderer, but as is usual where the eye is not single, where Christ and His glory are not alone before the soul, we have the assertion of the natural mind of the ambitious man, the ambitions of the flesh. Joab employed the wise woman of Tekoah to approach the king. She began by telling the king that her two sons strove in the field and there was none to separate them. She intended to convey to the king that Absalom was one of those, but it was a lie. It was no question of two sons striving together; Absalom’s act was one of murder, not a protective measure, not in any sense an act of self-defence, and although she proceeds to outline what corresponds with the gospel in a most striking manner, there was, underneath, this serious and fundamental defect, that the young man was veiled in the tale of a man striving with his brother in the field. How the enemy would thus misrepresent the position with regard to our Lord Jesus Christ, as if He were put to death by strife! His death was a murder, and His murderer is the man after the flesh whom Joab would have recalled, and whom the leaders of christendom today have recalled. They have contrived to open the door so that these opposers, these murderers, these enemies of Christ, should be brought in and have a place. And what is the result? Absalom, as will be remembered, having been recalled, burnt the field of barley (2 Samuel 14: 28 - 32). Barley is universally a type of the Lord Jesus Christ as the first-fruits to God, and the admission of these enemies of Christ involves that the truth of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ is being attacked, set aside, and undermined; the barley-field, as it were, has been set on fire, and who can quench it? Joab had no power to quench it, nor have those who are [p. 14] responsible, and although they may have respect for Christ, yet they have given the enemies a place, with the result that the Person of Christ is attacked on every hand. The condition of christendom is hopeless. Absalom has been recalled, so to speak, and as recalled he was not inactive; he set fire to the barley-field, and then he undertook to displace the king. And he did displace the king; so that, dear brethren, it is well to be reminded that we should be on our guard lest the barley-field be destroyed. The barley-field refers to the place of the testimony. We have to be on our guard in regard of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, lest the truth of it should be set on fire, as it were, and be destroyed. The foundation of God stands; that cannot be destroyed, but the barley-field refers to the sphere in which the testimony of the Person of Christ has been presented; and that has been corrupted, so that there is no protection in it at the present time for the Person of Christ.
John, having all this in view, introduces the truth of the Lord’s Person. He has in view to develop the great subject of life, but in order that the foundation should be right in our souls he introduces Him as in the beginning with God, as with God, that He was God, and that not one thing was made without Him. And yet it says, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”.
I want to enquire as to how far we have apprehended the life of Christ in this way. John goes on to say, “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”; he does not say, ‘The Word became man’, although that is true, but “became flesh”; that is the Word came in as a babe, and the life developed in Him according to its own nature. Genesis 1 insists that everything developed according to its kind, and so the life of Jesus developed in every respect according to itself. He brought it into this world; it was in Him. We see a remarkable picture of it in the dream of Pharaoh’s [p. 15] butler in the prison in Egypt. He sees three branches of a vine, and they budded, and blossomed, and bore fruit. There was the bud; there was the blossom, and the ripened fruit, and then the grapes are pressed into the cup of Pharaoh. What was for God, dear brethren, in that life! It was perfect, for the Word became flesh, and the life developed in perfection according to itself in every stage. It drew nothing from its environment; it had all its substance in itself. Thus the life of Jesus here under the eye of God, from the very outset was for His pleasure. The grapes pressed refers to the death of Christ in which that life that belonged to God was given up. Life belongs to God, and in no one was that more perfectly presented than in Jesus — His life was for God. The scene of death was lighted up by that life. “God ... commanded the light to shine out of darkness”, and so it did in the life of Jesus. In that life the light shone in the scene of death; and it was for men. “The Word”, it says, “became flesh, and dwelt among us”. He dwelt among us. As He moved in and out amongst men in the most ordinary circumstances, the light shone in every word, in every look, in every service of Christ; in every step He trod the light radiated. But, “the darkness apprehended it not”. Terrible fact! Men in the flesh, however cultured, however religious, are incapable of discerning such light! Hence the necessity for the work of God.
Even men who believed on Him because of the signs were of no moral value in His eyes. He did not commit Himself to them because He knew what was in man; He knew all men. Let no one beguile himself, the Lord knows perfectly what is in you; and unless you are born again He has no confidence in you or in me.
Therefore the work of God ran on collaterally with the light. As the light shone, God wrought, and such as Nicodemus, the woman of Samaria, the nobleman [p. 16] of Capernaum and the blind man, came into that light, and coming into that light, they came into the life, for the term is reciprocal. The life is the light, and the light is the life. The life of Christ is the light, and the light is the life, and hence as God wrought, the light that shone in the souls of men and women meant life to them. The question was asked in Ezekiel, “Shall these bones live?” Ezekiel 37: 3. Yes, they can live, but how? By the work of God.
Well now, that precious life, filling with delight the heart of God as it did, and illuminating men, shedding its light on every man, must remain alone unless He, in whom it was, died. He had been the light of men when Philip and Andrew came and told Him that the Greeks were desiring to see Him. Mark you! they said, “We would see Jesus”; it was the Man they wanted to see; the Man was in perfect keeping with the light presented. The magi in an earlier day did not ask to see the Man; they asked to see the King: “Where is he that is born King of the Jews?” That meant that the light that had come to them from heaven, through His star, had delivered them from national feeling. Their words indicated there was no national feeling in their minds. They wanted to see Him who was the King of the Jews, not ‘our king’. Such is the power of the light as it comes into the soul. It is true to itself, and as Matthew presents the King, they sought the King. But John presents the Man. You say, ‘I thought Luke presents the Man’. So he does, but John presents the Son of God as a Man, and emphasises that He is the Son of man. And so the Greeks come up and want to see the Man: “We would see Jesus”. They understood very little what their enquiry involved. Those who through Paul were led to believe on Jesus later understood how much lay behind the enquiry. Paul testified through the Greek world announcing that Jesus was the Son of God. He spoke of Him as the [p. 17] Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, a testimony to be rendered in its own time; and so assemblies were formed and they came to apprehend, as we see in the second letter to the Corinthians, the life of Jesus. How much do we understand of the life of Jesus? Paul’s great desire as to his body was that it should express “the life of Jesus”.
As the Greeks came up they said, “Sir, we desire to see Jesus” (John 12: 21), and Philip and Andrew came to Jesus and told Him. Then He says, “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified ... . Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die it bears much fruit”, John 12: 23, 24. What a humanity we shall see presently, not only in kind and quality, but in quantity, as the fruit of the death of Jesus! Let us not in any way be discouraged in regard of numbers. He says, “If it die it bears much fruit”.
Now I want to show you from the book of Judges how the “much fruit” corresponds with the original stem. Samson returns and he finds in the carcase of the lion a swarm of bees. A swarm of bees, and they are living. I hardly know anything in the realm of creation that suggests energy of life more than a swarm of bees. It is industrious life; it is life in mutuality with results. He finds a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase. You say, not a desirable place. We have to understand how to live in death and how death becomes the energy of life. As Paul says, “Death works in us, but life in you”, 2 Corinthians 4: 12. We have to understand that; it is mutuality in the carcase. Abraham used the expression, “that I may bury my dead from before me”, Genesis 23: 4. The natural eye does not like death. All sorts of devices have been employed to minimise the awfulness, the hideousness and offensiveness of death, but these are of no avail. The christian does not wish that; he accepts it as it is, and as it is rightly apprehended,
[p. 18] it is the very energy and stimulation of life, for our life is a life out of death. We are all in the same position, because we are all in the carcase. The swarm was in the carcase. There is nothing for the flesh in that. But the bees were acting industriously, there was mutuality and so the Spirit of God says, “and honey”. There was a product, and Samson takes of that and eats, and gives of it to his father and mother and they ate also; but he kept the secret. One of the most important things in christianity is secrecy. Rightly understood there is no secret society like that of christians. We have to learn how to keep the secrets of God. The epistle to the Romans tells us God kept a secret throughout the ages; He never divulged it. So the secret of life is known alone to christians. No one understands life except he who has the Spirit of God. The Philistines could never have answered the riddle had Samson’s wife not disclosed it. “If ye had not ploughed with my heifer, ye had not found out my riddle”. The church has proved a failure; it has disclosed the secret and hence is responsible for the undoing of Samson.
Having said so much, which I hope will be simple to us all as to the thought of life, I wish to add a further word as to mutual relations. The thought of working together mutually with a definite end is the first feature of collective life, and we find it here in this type. Now how is this to be preserved? We may begin in mutual relations, but how is mutuality to be preserved in freshness? I apprehend that the Lord’s supper is that which is designed to maintain it in freshness. As a young christian takes his place amongst the people of God, he feels himself one of them; he looks at them all in the light of the death of Christ; he is glad to recognise the poorest of them and the richest of them, as all meeting together happily and mutually, enjoying the things of the Spirit. But presently if the world gets in a little and has place [p. 19] with him, he begins to feel he has something to distinguish him from the rank and file, and he loses his freshness and his power, and becomes occupied with theories and doctrines; he loses the fresh spring in his soul and there is no honey. The Lord says, “I am come into my garden ... I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey”, Song of Songs 5: 1. As coming into His garden, He looks for the product of mutual life.
If you look at chapter 15, you will see it refers to the wheat harvest. I have no doubt the allusion is to the saints as the fruit of the death of Christ, and so if they are to be preserved in mutual relations they have to be kept fresh in the thought of the death of Christ; there is to be something to bring to their attention and to keep before them the constant efficacy of the death of Christ. Hence Samson finds, it says, a fresh or a new jawbone. We have got to understand that. It is a fresh one, not one dried up by the sun; death had just occurred, and he slays a thousand men with that. I have no doubt, dear brethren, that it refers to the Lord’s supper as bringing before us week by week the love of Christ in freshness. There is no growing old in that. I often think of the freshness of divine love as illustrated in the emerald rainbow around the throne in Revelation 4. There was a “rainbow round the throne like in appearance to an emerald”. What did that rainbow represent? The covenant of God made thousands of years before. It had been seen in the clouds for thousands of years by men in every nation. One has seen a perfect rainbow from horizon to horizon, but who understood it? And now, as the throne is set up in heaven, and God is about to resume His relations with men on earth, there it is! He says, I have not forgotten my covenant. I remember my covenant; you forget it; I have not forgotten, for my love was in it. The kindness and love of God to men was in that bow,
[p. 20] and that kindness and love are as fresh in the heart of God now as they were then. And the rainbow is the colour of an emerald. Green is a symbol of freshness, so that the love of God is as fresh and as true as He resumed His direct relations with the creation, as it was when He made the covenant. There is no change. Nor is there any change in the love of Christ; it remains as fresh as it was when He laid down His life, when He had each of us in His mind individually and when He had us collectively in His heart as the assembly. His love is as fresh today as it was then. It is the love of Christ brought weekly, if not constantly, to our attention, that preserves us in these mutual relations, and in the freshness and vigour of them. So there is always a supply of honey. He comes and looks for it. “I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey”.
The Lord’s supper is, so to say, objective, and we need more than that, and hence we have what is subjective suggested in the well. Samson thirsted. He had slain a thousand men, but he says, “Now shall I die for thirst”, and God clave the hollow rock which was in Lehi, and water came out of it. The well was therefore called En-hakkore, which means ‘the caller’s spring’. God answers the cry in the Spirit. You have the principle of calling or praying, and I would suggest for the young that perhaps one great cause of weakness, and unhappiness, and depression, is the want of constant prayer. We are enjoined to pray without ceasing. Think of an expression like that! Make everything a matter of prayer. If you do, the depression will disappear, and you will find that the Lord will come in for you; every detail of the path is known to Him. If He has numbered your hairs, has He not numbered your sorrows? He has, beloved brethren. He knows them. “The heart knoweth its own bitterness” (Proverbs 14: 10), but He knows it better than the heart, and He knows how to [p. 21] relieve us. Samson has the spring and is invigorated. Put ‘the caller’s spring’ to the test; you will never find it to fail you. And so Solomon, in that remarkable prayer of his in which he mentions heaven and the house of God so often, says, “What prayer, what supplication soever be made by any man ... when they shall know every man his own plague, and his own grief ... then hear thou from the heavens, the settled place of thy dwelling”, 2 Chronicles 6: 29, 30. God would answer, from His dwelling place, such a one who turned to him, and He does so now. I would especially urge upon young people to put what I am saying to the test. “For every one whosoever, who shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved”, Romans 10: 13. You will never find Him fail you. He answers by the Spirit, because it is the subjective side. Prayer and the Spirit go together. So Samson has the spring and he is invigorated.
After the Spirit is understood and prayer is understood as distinctive elements for maintaining the freshness of life in our souls, then we see how the purpose of God comes into view. Samson carried the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts with the bar to the top of a hill before Hebron. It is the power of Christ risen. We come into the light of the resurrection of Christ, the light of another world, for Hebron was built before the world, before Zoan in Egypt (see Numbers 13: 22). It represents what was before the world, and the doors, bars, and gates of this world (the power of Satan really) are all carried up there. There is no power left against us now; Christ has led captivity captive; He has gone up into heaven and has opened up a new world to us, and Hebron stands for that. We are in the light of another world in the resurrection of Christ.
If there is defection, which there is, alas! there is one other word: “The hair of his head began to grow”. As soon as you begin to discover the hair [p. 22] growing you may be sure that restoration has set in. It is not now a question of conforming to the requirements of the brethren in terms. We do not need to press for right terms and doctrine; what we should be looking for is the growth of the hair. If your hair begins to grow, it cannot be contested; it marks the energy of life coming into view. How can hair grow without the energy of life? So it says Samson’s hair began to grow. Dispensationally the hair of the church, so to speak, has begun to grow; life is being developed. And hence the end is near, for in that power all the world is coming down presently, even as in figure in Samson, when he bowed himself the house fell on all the people that were therein.