THE PREACHING OF THE SON OF GOD
[p. 6] THE PREACHING OF THE SON OF GOD
Romans 1:1-4; Romans 1:9; Romans 5:10; Romans 8:3,4; Romans 8:14,15; Romans 8:29
I wish, with the Lord’s help, to speak about the preaching of the Son of God, and the result for God intended to be accomplished thereby. Paul writes that God had revealed His Son in him, that he might announce Him as glad tidings among the nations.
The Son of God is on God’s side, and has in view results for God — both for time and eternity; whilst the Son of Man is on man’s side. As becoming Man, He is available for man, and may be appropriated by men; and so in the gospel of Luke we have Him from this latter point of view, and He is seen in the weakness of a babe; He is seen in that gospel as in the temple of God having been brought there to fulfil the requirement of the law. Arriving in the temple, He is taken into the arms of one who had gone into the temple by the Spirit. He is held, as it were, by the race representatively, but nevertheless suitably, in a spiritual way — in a priestly way. We have there God revealed on man’s behalf. He should be a light, as it is said, for the revelation of the Gentiles.
Think, beloved brethren, of the immense service rendered by Him who at that time was held in the arms of a man — held on the side of man — that He should remove the veil that lay upon us — that He should bring us under the eye of God, and that He should secure for us God’s thought for man. How much is in that blessed Man for us, and how wonderful that even tonight we can claim Him in all the infinite depths that are in His heart. As Mary sat at His feet and listened to His word — what disclosures there would be of what was in the heart of God for [p. 2] man; and He undertook to secure for man what He knew was in that heart, so that men were not only brought under the eye of God, but through Him we have secured all that is in the heart of God for man.
But in the Son of God we have One who is here representatively for God — He is concerned for God — He is concerned to bring about the plan of God for God’s pleasure; and so I wish, as I said, to bring out from these scriptures the manner in which the great preacher of the Son of God in his preaching (whilst announcing other things necessary for men) introduces the golden thread, as I may call it, of the light of the knowledge of the Son of God, so that there should be, as the passage that I read indicated, sons of God; that these sons conformed to the image of God’s Son, should be representative of God in this world, and at the same time be those amongst whom the Son of God is “the first-born among many brethren”.
Now I wish to show that this thought of sonship was indicated in the Old Testament, and was worked out there, even in persons not in Abraham’s line. I want to show by references to the Old Testament that from the very outset of God’s operations, the principle of sonship was in evidence. It shone particularly in connection with the two great lines of testimony — namely, the testimony connected with written records and the testimony connected with the creation. These two collateral testimonies stand out, working the one in relation to the other, and each indicating that God intended the result of His testimony to be in man — sonship. And in that connection one is encouraged to look at the ministry of Melchisedec, together with the ministry of Elihu and of Jehovah Himself in the book of Job. What we find in Melchisedec is that at a time when men generally had turned away from God, not liking to have Him in their knowledge, he appears in the service of God.
[p. 3] As representing the Son of God, it is said of him, that he was without father, without mother, without beginning of days or end of life. He was assimilated to the Son of God; being thus assimilated to the Son of God, he represents in his own person the features of the testimony whereby God will secure His great end. And so we find that he is presented to us as King of Righteousness, King of Peace, and Priest of the Most High God.
In this remarkable personage (appearing suddenly without explanation) is seen the whole testimony, or means for the accomplishment of the whole testimony of God. It is to remind us that God is never taken by surprise, and that He has, in the face of general apostasy — of a general turning away — one who maintains His testimony in the very highest possible dignity and power.
For we have not only a righteous man, as in Abraham, but the King of Righteousness, who can be King of Peace, and being King of Peace, he can undisturbedly minister to the people of God, for he was a priest of the Most High God. So that we have there, standing out in solitary dignity, one who is assimilated to the Son of God. In the hands of the Son of God not one iota of the testimony can slip; every thread of it is held with a view to the great results which the Son knows are cherished in the heart of God.
And so in the book of Job, corresponding with this great independent witness of whom I have spoken, you have sons of God coming up on certain days to appear before Him. Who these sons of God were, I am not prepared to say; but I am prepared, on the authority of Scripture, to say that they were sons of God, and that they came up according to the instinct of sons to appear before Him.
It is not a mere incident, beloved, that the Spirit of God records for us, that in those ancient days when [p. 4] the mass of men had turned away from God, there were those who came up before Him. They came up to present themselves before Him, and so, as He undertakes to reach His great end in Job — which was no less than sonship — He calls Job’s attention, at the very outset, to the fact that when He began His operations upon earth, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy”. It is not a mere incident. It had a great place in the dealings of God which led to Job’s collapse.
The fact is that God intended that He should be seen by Job. And so He intended in the incarnation that He should be seen by men. The great thought in sonship, therefore — in the Son becoming Man from this point of view — is that there should be adequate divine representation upon earth — in other words, that God should be seen. Scripture tells us “No man hath seen God at any time” (John 1:18). He dwelleth in light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen. But the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
So that the great representation on earth was through the Son, and we are told, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). Hence Job says, “Mine eye seeth thee” (Job 42:5).
Can we doubt, beloved, as to the representation presented to the eye of Job? What God presents to our eyes He intends to produce in us.
And so, in presenting the Son in the preaching, He intends to produce sons, and He does it. Hence Job says, “Now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5,6). Is that all? No, beloved, that is not all. God intended that that man should represent Him, and immediately He called upon the three friends of Job who had misrepresented Him.
How many are misrepresenting God at the present time, whilst professing to represent Him? Better [p. 5] no representation at all than that God should be misrepresented — falsely represented. So God immediately arraigns those who misrepresented Him in their speech. He says, you have not spoken rightly of Me like my servant Job. You see God now recognises His servant, and more than a servant. He says, you are a priest; the three men have to go to Job with their sacrifices.
You see God had something in view for Himself in all that wonderful service He rendered to Job. He did not intend merely to give the lie to Satan, to bring to our attention the shame of Job, and the folly of his speeches. His great thought was to bring Job out a representative — one to whom He could send even sinners. He was in his place like Melchisedec. He was a priest, he has seen God, and it is said that God accepted the face of Job. Who can deny that there was in his face a reflection of the face of God? He prayed for his friends — and God accepted the face of Job, and then God ornamented him and set him up in suitable dignity as His representative in this world. He enriched him. He gave him seven sons and three daughters, and Job continued for many years seeing, it says, his sons’ sons, even unto the fourth generation. What a great result in one man, beloved!
It reminds us that God is working with every one of us with as many pains, with as much interest, with as much affection as He did with that man. For He has in view that there should be conformity to the image of His Son, for His Son is the image of Himself. He is the image of the invisible God. We have a perfect image of the invisible God in the Son of God, and the great thought of God is to extend that image so that there might be extended representation of Himself. Hence, as I said, we see all the skill with which this great preacher of the Son of God interweaves the blessed truth of it in his gospel; for the preaching of the Son of God is not merely the announcement of the historical fact that He was proclaimed the Son of God from heaven. It involves that demonstration has come about, for it is said that He was declared to be the Son. It is such an One that Paul preaches. One who is declared to be the Son of God. That is to say, there is a moral element for the soul of man in the great fact of the resurrection. So, as I said, it is not merely an announcement of doctrine. There is in the preaching of the Son of God, as declared to be such by the resurrection from amongst the dead, a moral element which, entering by light into our souls, received by faith into our souls, has its own effect — an effect which, built into us in relation to other things, renders us impregnable.
And so the apostle begins by saying he was separated unto this great gospel. It was the gospel of God concerning His Son — One, as he proceeds to say, declared to be Son of God. I would emphasise that, so that we might have the light of the declaration of the Son in our souls, so as to banish all fear of death and Satan’s power from us. And so the apostle brings out clearly his position as a preacher of this gospel. How one is impressed by coming into contact with this great feature of the testimony which is introduced by this great servant, for it was not only when he actually preached that he served; he served always in his spirit. Coming into contact with his spirit, one would be impressed by the Son of God. He could say, “who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). He would overwhelm you with the sense he had of that great Person, and of His love! How he served, as he says, in his spirit! It was the controlling force of his life, and I venture to say he was personally representative of Christ in his life. He would convey to one’s soul constantly his estimate — his vision of the Son of God. He could say, “who loved me, and gave himself for me”.
[p. 7] And so he refers in writing to the Corinthians to the Son of God, “Who has been preached by us among you (by me and Silvanus and Timotheus), etc”. He could say, “In him is the yea, and in him the amen for glory to God by us” (2 Corinthians 1:20). How identified he was in his spirit with this great preaching committed to him.
So I go on to show the links in this epistle, which lead up to chapter 8, where we find the great result.
In chapter 5 he says we are reconciled by the death of His Son. It is as if God would lay special stress on reconciliation as leading up to what He had in His mind. How can we arrive, dear brethren, at sonship without reconciliation? We cannot. And in order that we should be reconciled there was the death of His Son — that expression of love. Think, beloved, of the death of His Son; think of what God had in view in the death of His Son. He intended that we should be reconciled — that there should not be one shade of distance; and, moreover, as reconciled (for the chapter contemplates that we have received it — it is something to be received, as sonship is to be received), it is said, “Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life”. How many of us understand what it is to be saved by the life of the Son of God! He lives in relation to us as the Son of God, but in order that we should live for God. That is what should be going on at the present time; the sons are to live and be saved by the life of His Son. These things are leading up to the great result. There are many other things in the book, I need not say. There are many details, but they are all involved in working out what I am speaking of, what I believe is in the mind of God. How He looks at the work! What it cost Him to bring about the result!
There is for us at the present the life of Christ. How many of us understand it? It is one thing to be reconciled, it is another to be saved from day to [p. 8] day in the sense of which I am speaking of it. Every reconciled soul will ultimately be saved, but what about today? God lives today as He shall live a million years hence. He wishes you to live, He wishes me to live. He is the living God. The thought is that we should be living, and be saved by the life of His Son. Think of being brought into the sphere of life. As He said “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). But there is not only the light of life, there is the thing itself, and that thing, as it says here, is no less than the life of the Son of God. “We shall be saved by his life”.
Now let us go to chapter 8, from which I wish to show how this life works. God intends that the flesh shall have no place in us. There can be no representation of God in the flesh. It had its day. One marvels at the wonderful patience of God with man in the flesh. He had every possible opportunity to represent God, and there was no representation of God — the very opposite.
We find God sends His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Wonderful words! Were it not that the Holy Spirit uses them, one would dread to use them. Remember that God sent His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, so as to condemn sin in the flesh. It is condemned. And by no less means than the incarnation of the Son of God when He took on Himself the likeness of sinful flesh. God has dealt with it, and it need not trouble anyone. It is condemned. I have nothing more to do with it. And it is to the end, dear brethren, that we shall pay our debts, for we cannot represent God here as in debt. There has to be a complete discharge of all moral obligations if we are to represent God. See how He has done it; “That the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us”. Just as in the well-known figure in 2 Kings, one paid her debts and lived [p. 9] of the rest. It is a question of the Spirit, beloved. In the life of God’s Son, every moral obligation of His people on earth is discharged, every obligation is fully met — more than met.
These are all constructive references. So we read “As many as are led by the Spirit of God these are sons of God”. You say: “What is it to be led by the Spirit of God?” The simplest way I can put it is you are led by the Spirit in the discharge of your moral obligations. In loving your brethren, for example, you are led by the Spirit of God. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. We are now emboldened, as we are led by the Spirit. As so dignified, as led by the Spirit of God, we are like the Son of God. We are told these are the sons of God, marked off as the sons of God. It is no longer a question of life; we are marked off as the sons of God, as led by the Spirit. So we have not the spirit of bondage, but we have the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”.
Now you see the result for God. You have come along the shining way, commencing with the discharge of every moral obligation, led by the Spirit of God, not by the flesh, and you have reached God Himself. Think of reaching God Himself in our souls! Think of the road He took to reach us, and think of the road we must take! We cannot reach God in our souls in any conscious way except by the Spirit. We may use language others use, or sing hymns others have composed in the Spirit, and yet not reach God in our own souls. We may substitute mere terms for worship, but we cannot reach God consciously except by the Spirit. He has not given us the spirit of bondage, but the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father” — the spirit of sonship — the spirit by which all fear is cast out. We cry by that spirit, “Abba, Father”. We have reached God.
I would ask young people here: ‘Have you reached God in your souls?’ I do not mean do you know the doctrine of it, not that I would make light of doctrines, which are quite right in their place. But the thing is to reach Him! We cry: “Abba, Father”, by the Spirit, and that cry is real. It is delightful to the heart of God, beloved. He gave up His only Son, and has received what delights Him.
Well now, I just want to say a word about the last verse I read. You see we are now on the mountain top. We read in Psalm 104:8,10, “The mountains rose, the valleys sank, ... He sendeth the springs into the valleys: they run among the mountains”. What an atmosphere we live in! We breathe an atmosphere which is marked by the knowledge that we were predestinated and foreknown, even before the foundation of the earth. What an atmosphere to breathe! And so these verses deal with the hilltops of purpose, where we are by predestination. We read we were foreknown to be conformed to the image of His Son.
We have now come to what was in the heart of God in eternal purpose, and what actuated Him when speaking to Job, what He had in His mind as He laid the foundations of the earth — sons of God. We were foreknown and predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. I wish every one of us could take home with us the idea of the image. There can be no doubt that the idea will be carried on in the future period in which we shall be called upon to represent the Son of God in the administration of the world. I have no doubt about it. How shall we administer the affairs of a city or of ten cities, save as we know the Son of God? We shall be there in the image of the Son of God. Beloved, I would that the saints of God at the present time might be conscious of this coming day. Is that all? No. There is the present time, a time of representation, as that will be, and these constructive things in our souls enable us to be in true representation now.
[p. 11] Then there is the further thought that He should be the First-born among many brethren. Here, you see, we reach what is entirely of God. He has His family, not merely a son of God, as Job was, but One in pre-eminence amongst many. All are to be like Him — all like the sons of the King — all like Jesus. So that in being conformed to the image of His Son we are called His brethren, amongst whom He is the First-born. You see how God thus reaches His great thought. He has a family of sons after the image of His Son. Every one is seen, in whatever capacity, representing the Son of God; and as representing the Son, we represent God.