THE GOSPEL (6)
THE GOSPEL (6)
JTJr The question of eternal life is raised in this passage. We have had considerable ministry on this subject.
ABP Can eternal life be inherited?
JTJr It is what we come into; it is a gift; the Lord says, “I give them life eternal”, (John 10:28).
CAM It is connected with the inheritance, of course, but was this man right in asking if there was something he could do to get it?
JTJr Being a gift, it would not be so much what we can do; we are enjoined to “lay hold” of it (1 Timothy 6:12).
JT It is a question of love and it belongs to the saints as such.
JTJr The Lord says, “I give them life eternal”(John 10:28). The man’s question brings up the subject of the neighbour.
JT It is the nearest of the brethren; they cannot be far away if we are to be in the enjoyment of life.
JTJr So that the enjoyment of eternal life involves persons.
JT Yes; distinguished persons.
ABP Does the inn suggest the sphere of life?
JT Yes; the inn suggests the sphere of it; that is good.
AR Do the scriptures quoted by the lawyer bear on eternal life? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thine understanding; and thy neighbour as thyself”.
JTJr We could not have eternal life until the Lord came.
JT Quite so.
Rem Jude says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” Jude 21.
JTJr There it is regarded as something to be reached.
JT Yes; it is an objective idea there.
SCM Paul says, in Romans 6:23: “For the wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
JT While it is all very simple, it requires that we lay hold of it, as remarked, for it belongs to the saints and all here should understand it.
ANW Is it not important to emphasize that it is objective, it is something outside of myself?
JTJr It is objective in Romans, but it is not objective when we reach Christ.
CAM Is it objective until the moral question is settled?
JT Quite so; the moral question needs to be settled. ‘Moral’ is a good word if we understand what is meant by it.
Ques What is the difference between enjoying eternal life and having it as an objective?
JTJr Romans treats of it objectively. We do not reach eternal life there — it is “unto eternal life”. We need the circle and conditions of life to enjoy it.
ANW In the 133rd Psalm, where brethren dwell together in unity, it says, “There hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore” Psalm 133:3. That is subjective among united brethren.
JTJr Yes; you must get out of the world to get into eternal life.
CFE To love the Lord thy God with all the heart, and with all the soul, and all our strength, would suggest that it lays hold of our whole being?
JTJr The lawyer quoted that, but he did not have eternal life.
[p. 435] EMcK Would you help us on the thought of laying hold of it?
JTJr It is something to be laid hold of; it is there for us.
ABP Does the reference in Ephesians to “the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance to the redemption of the acquired possession” Ephesians 1:13,14, suggest the present foretaste and enjoyment of eternal life?
JTJr Yes, that is the way it is presented in Ephesians, but in Romans it is presented as something to be reached.
JT Eternal life is enjoyed amongst the brethren; it is the collective idea.
WWM Romans presents eternal life objectively while in Ephesians it is the subjective idea in the Spirit. In Romans, as F.E.R. has said, we have the faith of it; many have the faith of it but do not have the thing itself.
JTJr F.E.R. opened up the truth of eternal life.
JT Yes; he greatly helped, and we should be thankful for his ministry.
EEH Will you make it more clear what is in mind about the collective idea in relation to eternal life?
JT It involves the brethren; they are all lovable; there are none like them on the earth.
A-wR Is that why the apostle John says, “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren” 1 John 3:14?
JT That settles the whole matter; it is experienced collectively.
AR We must have the sphere of life to enjoy eternal life?
JTJr Yes; amongst the brethren. Romans does not give you the assembly formally, but it leads on to the assembly, which is the sphere [p. 436] of eternal life.
ABP How is it worked out in our chapter?
JTJr This question was raised by “a certain lawyer” who was tempting the Lord.
JT He was not of much account, spiritually.
SCM The Lord quoted from what was written in the law when He was tempted of the devil; He met him with what is written.
JT Very good.
NC Was eternal life displayed in Acts 4 when the believers were together and no one said that anything he had was his own but they had all things in common? Would that be a sphere of love, manifesting the fact of eternal life?
JT Just so.
WWM That would be fulfilment of Psalm 133:3 — “There hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore”. It was there.
JTJr It is a question of what the brethren know and understand about it now, and I think one feature of eternal life is that the pressure of death is removed from the believer.
ANW It is not everlasting existence.
AR Is it important to see that it belongs to the land and the land suggests a sphere which is beyond death?
JT We know very little about the land.
JTJr We should see that it is necessary to get out of the world; that is the first thing; and the truth, as set out in Romans, would take us out of the world.
AR Does it take us out of the wilderness, too?
JTJr Eternal life has a relation to the wilderness, in one sense, for it relates to us now; it has come into a scene of death.
AR In that way should a meeting such as we have today be outside the world altogether?
JTJr Well, quite so; although not of the world, yet we are [p. 437] in it, physically.
EAL Would John 3:36 help in that connection? It says, “He that believes on the Son has life eternal, and he that is not subject to the Son shall not see life”.
JT That is a very good verse; it is related to administration in the hands of Christ.
SW Would you say a word as to being maintained in the sphere of eternal life? Is it by feeding on Christ as set forth in John 6:54, “He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life eternal”?
JT Eating and drinking is in mind in John 6; real manhood is in mind.
JTJr What our brother is quoting as to John 6 is individual. We have to make a distinction between what is individual and what is collective.
JT Quite so.
JE In John 17 the Lord connects the knowledge of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ with life eternal.
JTJr That is collective but what our brother has just been saying as to John 6 is individual. He that eats the flesh of the Son of Man and drinks His blood has life in himself. But then the Lord says more than that in John 17:3: “This is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. That is a further thought.
DMacd We have been speaking of an out-of-the-world condition of things. Before speaking of life eternal in John 17 the Lord says, “I have overcome the world”, John 16:33.
JTJr Yes; in John 6 you get the kind of food that gets a person out of the world; he that eats the flesh of the Son of man and drinks His blood feeds on the death of Christ.
Ques Is the collective sphere necessary for the enjoyment of eternal life, or can [p. 438] it be enjoyed individually?
JTJr In the fullest sense it would be amongst the brethren.
AR Do we touch eternal life after the Lord’s supper?
JTJr I think we have it before we partake of the Lord’s supper. There must be the giving up of the world and coming amongst the brethren; it is there that we enjoy it.
JT That is the idea; amongst the brethren.
AP What relation has fellowship to the truth of eternal life?
JT As separated from the world and as having come among the Lord’s people, you love the brethren, you are at home with them and have fellowship with them. It is in such a state of things that you have eternal life, for the Lord is there.
Ques How would you present eternal life in preaching the gospel?
JT I would present it as being in Christ, and where He is, His people are; therefore, it is amongst them in Him. It involves loving the brethren. There is nothing simpler than that, so far as I know. God gave Mr. Raven great light in what he taught, and we should keep his ministry in mind.
ANW “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”(Romans 6:23). This verse is constantly and effectively used in the gospel.
JT The wages of sin is given for a reason; it is something earned; but eternal life is given because of believing in Christ; it is God’s gift.
EEH Then you have the individual, “whosoever”, in John 3:16; would you say a little as to the individual side.
JT John 3:16 shows how the individual comes into it.
[p. 439] Ques That is the point on which I wanted help; do we speak of the truth as it applies individually first and then collectively?
JT Quite so.
JTJr First of all, it is in Christ; you locate it, so to speak. That is where it is. I think that it is important; it is a question of where eternal life is, it is in Christ.
JT And it is in the saints, too.
JTJr Yes; it involves a sphere of things that is spiritual.
GH Is the collective side the greater thought?
JTJr The collective is greater, and where Christ is you have the saints.
ANW Romans 6:23 emphasizes just what you are saying: “... but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
JT In Romans 5:21 it is through Him; He is the instrumentality of it, and then it is in Him in chapter 6:23. As we get hold of these points we get help, because we must reach Christ to enjoy it.
EEH Do we need to understand what is meant by the expression, “have life eternal”, in John 3:16? Are we to connect it with ourselves? It is in Christ but we have it in Him?
VCL John speaks much of eternal life because he knew what it was to be in the Lord’s bosom. Will we not have greater power in speaking of eternal life if we know nearness to the Lord, personally?
JTJr I think so; so that it relates to a sphere of things where Christ is and where the saints are; it is a spiritual sphere.
Rem The scripture says, and it has been said in ministry, that Christ is it. “He is the true God and eternal life”(1 John 5:20).
JTJr You cannot reverse that; eternal life is not a person; it is an order of things that has [p. 440] come about through Christ becoming man, therefore. He is it.
AR John’s epistle would confirm what you are saying. It speaks of that which was from the beginning.
JTJr “That” refers to what came out in the Lord’s life here as man.
Rem The Lord said, “He that believes on the Son has life eternal”, John 3:36.
JTJr Yes; he that believes has it, but the point is where he has it; he has it in Christ, and where Christ is, life is; and where Christ is the saints are, therefore eternal life is enjoyed in the assembly now.
DP Would the carrying out of the law lead to eternal life? The Lord said to the man in our chapter, “This do and thou shalt live” (verse 28).
JT Eternal life means more than carrying out the law.
JTJr The requirement of the law is fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh; this man was not doing that because he was tempting the Lord.
SCM We have a reference in Colossians 3:3: “Your life is hid with the Christ in God”.
JT That is it, your life is hid with Christ in God; that is where it is, it is hid in God. We cannot speak of it in a public way, it is hid, it is private, so to speak.
Ques Would 1 John 5:11 help? It says, “And this is the witness, that God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son”.
JT It is in the Son; that is where it is.
WWM That should be greatly enforced on all our minds, and also the end of verse 20 in that chapter: “We are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” 1 John 5:20. That shows that eternal life is [p. 441] in Christ.
JTJr The difficulty with many may be that they want to stay in the world and also to have eternal life. Conversion does not necessarily mean that a person is in the thing; we may have it before us, but may not be in the enjoyment of it.
Ques Does it not say in John 12:25 that “he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal”?
JT Quite so, and when you come into the assembly you have it.
VCL Unless we have really died to the world we will never know and enjoy eternal life.
JTJr That is right, to die to the world and then to the flesh; the order of man after the flesh was ended in the death of Christ, as well as the world system.
ABP The half-dead state of this man seems to provide the means for grace to operate to bring in life. There is need for life.
JTJr The man had left Jerusalem; he descended from Jerusalem; he was on his way to Jericho.
Rem In John 6:27 it says, “Work not for the food which perishes, but for the food which abides unto life eternal, which the Son of man shall give to you”. Eternal life is connected with food there.
JTJr Yes; and it is a gift. That chapter shows that eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of man gives life. It involves another order of things; the end of the condition of flesh and blood is in mind; it relates to a dead Christ. We need to come to the end of the fleshly condition if we are to come into eternal life. So in a general way what marks the saints is that they are delivered from the world and have come into the assembly.
ABP The blood and the flesh are separate.
JTJr Yes, showing that death is in mind.
GH Our sitting here this afternoon with love being in evidence shows that we are in the enjoyment [p. 442] of eternal life. It is not only on Lord’s day morning but as we sit together in love on all occasions.
JTJr Quite so; when you get the brethren together, there is opportunity for the enjoyment of eternal life. The Lord said that where two or three are gathered together to His name there He is in the midst. The enjoyment of eternal life involves the Lord’s presence amongst the saints.
AR The man in our chapter required to be taken out of the position in which he was found.
JTJr First of all, we have to go to where the man is.
VCL You spoke of one feature of eternal life being when free from the fear of death; are we not relieved from every form of bondage when we come into the enjoyment of eternal life?
JT Yes, every feature of bondage, whatever it is.
AR The man is put into the hands of an inn- keeper; the Samaritan is prepared to spend money for his care, too.
JTJr Before you come to that, however, he is put on the beast; the Lord’s own power is available; it is His own beast; He supplies His own power to bring persons to the inn.
JT The point before us today is the place where the love of the brethren is and this would correspond with the inn.
JTJr So that if a brother falls amongst thieves you want to get to him, and heal the damage he has received from the thieves.
ANW Just prior to the reference to binding up of his wounds, it says, “But a certain Samaritan journeying came to him, and seeing him, was moved with compassion, and came up to him”. Not only did he come to him but he came up to him and applied the healing to his wounds.
JTJr Quite; we must consider the damage done to persons; the damage to this man was done by [p. 443] the robbers. The priest and the Levite could easily let the matter go; they did not take it up; they passed by. We need to be moved with compassion and come to the person where he is and try and get him out of the position, pouring in oil and wine.
JT Then the need to get him amongst the brethren.
JTJr The oil and the wine would be amongst the brethren; the brethren have it.
SW Would the preaching of the gospel be very extensive, and should we be accurate in speaking? John’s first epistle speaks of letting “that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you, ... ye also shall abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise which he has promised us, life eternal”, 1 John 2:24.
SCM Our chapter speaks of pouring in the oil and wine. There was no scarcity of oil and wine. I suppose we should draw upon the divine bounty through the Spirit.
AR Both the oil and wine suggest the Spirit, do they not?
JTJr Yes. The thing is to get the man to the inn. The binding up precedes that; he had fallen into the hands of robbers, and they had left him half-dead. The unions will rob a man of his rights as to conscience and take away his livelihood. If a brother becomes ensnared in a union, he is deprived of his privileges. The thing for us to do is to try, with the Lord’s help, to get him out of such a position. He it not dead; he is half-dead.
JHE Paul exhorts, “Ye who are spiritual restore such a one”, Galatians 6:1.
JTJr That is the line we should be on.
DMacd Some of our young are on this downward pathway. When half-dead, this man had no will of his own. Must we wait for the breaking of the will before we can pour in the oil and [p. 444] the wine?
JTJr That may be so; here, the robbers were the ones that did the damage; he fell into their hands. When a brother is damaged, we have to inquire what happened to him. What caused him to be in a half-dead state?
DP Does the local meeting administer the aid to such a damaged person?
JTJr Quite so, but it is for each one of us to take the matter on. It is the neighbour. We do not wait, we do something to bring about recovery. We do not wait for others to visit him, we see him ourselves.
ANW The word to the lawyer was, “Go, and do thou likewise”.
JE Is there a suggestion that we are to have something that will relieve the condition? The Samaritan had the oil and the wine; he had what met the condition.
JTJr Quite so; and what we get in the Samaritan is that He was moved with compassion; divine feelings were operating in the Samaritan. He was moved with compassion. That should characterize the preachers.
ABP In the expression of those compassions he would not compromise the elements of the kingdom. The binding up and the pouring in of oil and wine seem to suggest the elements of righteousness and peace and joy.
JTJr And the kingdom would be a sphere of protection. I suppose that what you pour in would be of a comforting nature; you want to be set for building up.
CAM Did the Samaritan do the work of a priest and a Levite? He sympathized and healed, and then carried him to the inn.
JTJr Yes, he had everything with him. So that the preachers should have what is needed. The Lord will be with them when they have the oil and the [p. 445] wine. It would suggest the compassions. And then, he has the beast. The preacher has everything at his disposal.
VCL The willingness of the victim to be helped is not prominent here but the compassionate attitude that should be with all the saints as set out in the Samaritan.
JHE In 2 Corinthians 5:19 Paul says, “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself ... and putting in us the word of that reconciliation. We are ambassadors therefore for Christ”. This would be the oil and the wine.
JTJr That is a good scripture to bring in here: “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself”.
JT The ‘word’ is a question of what one can say.
JTJr Yes; and he was moved with compassion; that is, the preacher is to be moved, and he should move the compassions of the saints also.
GH In Luke’s gospel we see, in an outstanding way, the expression of compassionate feelings.
JTJr That is right; the word is that he “was moved with compassion”. The preacher should thus convey that divine feelings enter into the preaching and that he has something with him and in him to cause healing and movement.
ANW It was on the way of his journey; he came right to where the half-dead man was.
JT That is it; he had purpose in his journeying.
AR It is easy to lose persons, but the point is to save them.
JTJr We need to get down to where they are and pour in the oil and the wine.
AR We want to save people, and not be required [p. 446] to withdraw from them.
JTJr We may have to withdraw from persons, but the point is to save them if that is righteously possible.
FNW Does it show the fulness of the glad tidings? It is not just the administration of first aid on the spot, but the inn is in mind to which to bring the person.
JTJr Yes, that is important, and then there is the beast. The Lord supplies the power to bring the person to the inn.
JT The word “beast” is apt to divert our thoughts, but the idea is to suggest, in type, the faithfulness and support that is available.
JTJr It alludes, therefore, to the Lord’s own power; it was His own beast. The Lord would bring us to the inn Himself, but He would have us to do likewise.
EEH Everything is done for the man; he does nothing himself.
JTJr He allows it to be done; he does not resist it. If a man’s will is active you cannot do anything for him.
AR It has been stressed for the last fifty years that the assembly is the sphere of salvation.
JHE In chapter 15 of this gospel, the shepherd lays the sheep upon his own shoulders. The Lord is capable of doing that.
Ques Is the responsibility placed on the innkeeper suggestive of the care and support which is in the assembly?
JTJr That is our responsibility; it is put on us to care for one another. So we have shepherding and the care meeting. The idea of the care meeting is that we care for the Lord’s interests and for one another.
Rem It says, in verse 35, “Take care of him, and whatsoever thou shalt expend more, I will render to thee on my coming back”. The Lord will [p. 447] reward us at His coming for any service, even to the giving of a cup of cold water in His name.
JTJr We may think that we are overspending; doing too much; but the Lord has given the means.
A-wR We are being helped more and more to get away from what is legal and into what pertains to love’s sphere.
JTJr Very good; we want to get into love’s sphere.
FNW It is a comfort that the love is not running out at the end of the dispensation; whatever is spent, there is to be plenty in reserve.
JTJr The Spirit being here, we have the means to meet every need.
ABP The word “compassions” is used in Romans 12:1 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God”. Would that refer back to the opening up of the gospel, the compassions of God, which should create right feelings in us?
JTJr I think that is the point; so that the preachers should convey that.
DP Would the priest and the Levite know of the inn?
JTJr They should know about it; but we cannot excuse them, for they did nothing. We are to make most of the person that does something; he shows what he is by what he does; he is a neighbour.
DMacd Can we look at the innkeeper as figurative of the Spirit?
JTJr I think so; everything here below is under the charge of the Spirit.
Rem The Lord Jesus would be very sympathetic in this matter, for “All we like sheep have gone astray”, and “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities ... and with his stripes we are healed”, Isaiah 53:5.
JTJr Quite; so the Samaritan brings the man to the inn and leaves him in the care of the innkeeper.
[p. 448] It is a sphere of things; the saints form it, I think, and that is what you come to — the sphere where the saints are.
WTP Does the Lord trust us to care for things that are His?
JTJr That is the way to look at it; everything is under the Spirit and the Spirit is in the assembly. The man was left with the innkeeper.
ANW Mr. Raven has remarked to the effect that there are many who have not the faith for the position of reproach and must be carried.
JTJr In Acts 20, Paul descended from the upper room and embraced Eutychus. It has been suggested that he represents the idea of a priest as enfolding Eutychus in his arms.
JT He was one who had love for the saints, and love resuscitates life.