LIFE

^[p. 68] LIFE

Revelation 1: 17; Acts 1: 3; Acts 25: 19

My remarks, I hope, will be brief so as to make room for others, for the prophets are enjoined to speak two or three and the others are to judge. So I thought that a word as to life would help. Everything from the divine point of view was set out in the Lord Jesus and above all things life. So that it is said, “In him was life”. Death marked all else, but in Him was life; this was a great feature as He came into the world, becoming Man. Life was there and “the life was the light of men”. So the light shone in the darkness. It was the light of life. Life came into a scene of death, betokening the mind of God to man, for if God enlightens man by a thing, He intends him to have it.

So, brethren, it was the divine intention that there should be a new beginning in the Person of Christ. Life was there and it was shining. It shone on men. “The true light was that which”, as John says, “coming into the world, lightens every man” (John 1: 9); not Israel as such but “every man”. God indicated that He had that in His mind for them, and that the testimony of life should continue here. So I thought that it would be helpful to bring before you that God intends a living state of things among His people and that this hinges on our apprehension of Christ as living. Jacob was moved as he was convinced that Joseph was “yet alive”. He was convinced. He had been sent before them to preserve life. Indeed, the name given to him by Pharaoh would signify that he was the “sustainer of life”. This is a great thought, seen fully in the true Joseph who has authority over all flesh that He might give eternal life to as many as God had given Him. There ^[p. 69] is to be a testimony to it now in a living state of things in the people of God and this state of things necessarily hinges upon their being in the light of Christ as life. As they apprehend Him as life, the Holy Spirit works in order to bring about correspondence to a living Person.

And so I read the verse in Revelation. The Lord laid His right hand upon John. Isolated as he was, he was to bear witness to the power of the life that was in Christ. In the gospel he does not attach his name at all, it is “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, but it is “I, John”, in the Revelation so that we have no doubt as to who is speaking. It was one upon whom the right hand of power was laid. One knows but little of the Lord’s touch, but one can understand that the touch of the right hand of the One who is life would convey an impression which would enter into John’s testimony in this wonderful book of Revelation. Energy marks it. It announces the break-up of man’s world. It is impregnated with the energy of life. “Behold, the lion ... of the tribe of Juda ... has overcome”. So that there is energy in the testimony; this has a voice for us, for we should be as those who believe what we say and as those who are affected by what we say. So the Lord lays His right hand upon John and says, “I am he that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death”. That, you see, breathes energy, victory; Christ has the keys of hades and of death. He has supreme control over those elements which Satan once held. One dwells on this because it is teaching intended to qualify a witness. This book of Revelation is one of the most powerful witnesses there is and the vessel had to be prepared for it. What preparation there is in the appearance of the Lord to him! and then in His personal touch, symbol of His power, “Fear not; I am the first and the last”.

^[p. 70] You see where we stand at the present time in the light of this testimony. It is the power of life in Christ operative in the witnesses. The spirit of life from God entered into the two witnesses. It is a book of power and it is for us to enter into the spirit of it. Well now, in the Acts you have the Lord appearing to them, as it says, during forty days, alive. He showed Himself alive, after His sufferings, with many proofs. They were to have Him thus among them as alive after suffering for the testimony. He suffered. You cannot have testimony otherwise really. The first great witness in Scripture is Abel and he suffered in his testimony. Indeed, the idea of testimony is that. So that it is a living One who had suffered. That is the idea. “He presented himself living”, it is said, “after he had suffered”, Acts 1: 3. He was in their midst with many proofs. Think of the Lord coming into our midst at a moment like this, literally. Paul tells the Corinthians about several appearances and amongst them is one in which the Lord appeared to above five hundred brethren at once. One would be impressed with the power that was there, for He was alive; but as one looked at His hands and His side the heart would be touched. It was after He suffered. The witness of the hands and the side would appeal to the affections — the living One suffered. And so I pass on to Paul because he is the great witness. As he was taken up, the Lord said to Ananias, “I will show him how great things he must suffer”. He was to be a minister and a witness. The testimony would bring out suffering. When Paul was in chains, Festus said of him, that he affirmed that Jesus was living. He spoke about the living One. There was no doubt in his mind in the affirmation, it was a certainty. “Last of all ... he appeared to me also”, 1 Corinthians 15: 8. “Am I not an apostle? have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” 1 Corinthians 9: 1. He was crucified in weakness but He lives by ^[p. 71] the power of God. The power of the living Christ was in Paul. It was the testimony of life. That is one thing that differentiates the people of God from all others. In the plague of dog-flies God said, “I will distinguish in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell” (Exodus 8: 22), and how can we be distinguished except in the power of life? It is a question of the power of life and in virtue of that we are marked off from the Egyptians. It is not the correct doctrines that we hold or the correct ground on which we stand that distinguishes us. It is the power of life. Moses said, ‘How shall we be distinguished, except by Thy presence?’ It involves the presence of God. Christ was alive in Paul in his ministry. That was what I had on my mind, that there might be amongst the saints a living state of things. Paul was in the enjoyment of life in Christ. He said, “I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds”, Acts 26: 29. He was in the enjoyment of a living state of things in Christ.