THE OBEDIENCE OF THE CHRIST
While thinking about this occasion, the scripture came to mind where the apostle Paul, speaking of what is lawless and what is proud, says, “leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ”, 2 Cor.10:5. That expression has been in my mind as pondering this occasion: “the obedience of the Christ”. You see in the Lord Jesus a standard of obedience in man that we do not see anywhere else, the obedience of the Christ. It is the divine standard of obedience. Now, obedience did not always apply to the Lord Jesus. I say that because He was not always man. As He came in to manhood, He came into circumstances in which obedience was appropriate. Before then, He existed in the greatness of His Person in eternal glory; no human eye, no creature eye, could comprehend or even take account of the glory of Godhead that was His. There would have been no need then for obedience. His word carried power. We have been reading in the beginning of Genesis and we see that His word carried power, even in relation to the creation: “Let there be light”, Gen.1:3 If the Lord Jesus, in the greatness of His Person, said “Let there be light”, it was inevitable that there would be light. It could not be otherwise. How great He is in His Person.
Think of the greatness of the Lord Jesus as God. Even as to the creation itself; we are told that “the worlds were framed by the word of God”, Heb.11:3. Think of the greatness of such a One, and He was the One who was instrumental in the creation. How great He is! And yet in coming into manhood, He came into a condition in which there was something He had never known before, because He could not have known it before, and that was that there were moral glories to be displayed which God was looking for in man. No mere man could effect creation by his word, and yet the Lord Jesus came into manhood. Think of all that that means. It speaks in Hebrews of how “he learned obedience” (chap.5:8). It was something new to Him to be obedient because of the greatness of who He is, and yet as in manhood He never disobeyed. The Lord Jesus could never have disobeyed because of the perfection of the manhood that was His. Think of His moral excellence and all that He brought into manhood!
In chapter 6 of John, He says “I am come down from heaven, not that I should do my will, but the will of him that has sent me”. Think of the Lord Jesus coming down from heaven. What came down? He brought into this world a feature that had never been seen before – absolute obedience. He brought into the world the kindness and love of God that had never been seen so perfectly before – the kindness and love of God to man. He manifested all that God was looking for in man – dependence, subjection. He came down out of heaven, and in “taking his place in the likeness of men” (Phil.2.7), He brought obedience into the world. He brought it into a world where men had been pursuing their own wills. What a terrible world we live in; we are often reminded of that. In this world, there are so many billion people, that means there are so many billion wills operating. Soon there will be a day when the only will that shall operate is God’s; it will have its way over the whole earth. When Jesus came in, He came not to do His will but the will of Him that sent Him. Think of the Lord Jesus in John’s gospel continually taking the place of the sent One in His public service here. This is the gospel that brings out His greatness as the Son of God, and yet in wonderful grace He took His place as the sent One. He was sent out by the Father after His baptism, and why was He sent? It was not to do His own will. No, He was sent in order that He should be obedient, that He should know what it was to live according to the will of His Father.
Think of what that meant to the Father, as taking account of one blessed Object here upon the earth who was living for His will, who was obedient in everything, who brought the element of perfect obedience into the world. It had never been seen in its perfection before, and the Lord Jesus brought it into the world. He presents Himself in John 6 as the One on whom we are to feed. He had come down having brought with Him all the moral glories that God looked for in man – brought them into the world, and we can feed upon Him. How wonderful to take account of the Lord Jesus. Let us feed upon Him. What does that mean – to feed upon Him? We all have moments when we can let our minds range over what interests us, the things we like. Let our minds range over the Lord Jesus, let our minds dwell upon Him, on the moral excellence that was seen in Him, the virtues, the qualities that were manifested in Him. And among those great qualities was obedience, the obedience of the Christ. It was demonstrated to this world. The disciples did not understand: on one occasion they said to Him, Eat, consider for Yourself, You need food. That is the way the natural man thinks – you need food, consider for yourself, you need to be built up. But the Lord Jesus says, I have other food, My food is to do the will of Another, it is to be obedient to the Father’s will. Think of the satisfaction which that gave Him, the joy of knowing that all that He did was perfectly in accord with the will of His God and Father, and to know the joy that His Father had in taking account of that pathway of dependence and obedience. These are two great features that God looks for in man and there they were set out perfectly in the pathway of Jesus. He says, “I have food to eat which ye do not know”, John 4:32.
The disciples did not know it. I suppose that might mean that either they were not aware of what He was feeding on, or that had not been the food that had maintained them until then. I am sure they came to it in measure afterwards, because they went out in apostolic power; they would have realised then that there was food for them. The food was to do the will of another, and that is food for us too. Jesus says, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, John 4:34. What was His work? The Lord Jesus came to do the work of God; that is to make Him known. God had always desired that persons might know Him; that is because of His nature. His nature is love. If there is love, then the one who loves desires that their loved one should come to know them and understand them, understand how they think, understand what suits them, understand the things that please them. God had been working for a long time, many thousands of years, but man could never come to know God without the Lord Jesus. He was the One who was the expression of God Himself, yet found here in manhood’s condition in obedience to His God and Father that He should do the will of Him that had sent Him and finish His work.
Oh beloved, think of how well He did that! We have been reminded recently of the completion of the work, the Lord Jesus having finished that work. He did it all in obedience to His God and Father and that was what sustained Him. It was food to Him. He could go in the strength of that. As His life upon earth proceeded, you might ask – what could sustain Him? There was hostility all around Him, He was rejected by His people, even His disciples could not understand Him. Even at the end of those three and a half years, it was obvious that the disciples really did not understand what He was speaking about and yet what sustained Him was His obedience to the will of His God and Father and the consciousness of the pleasure that God had in Him as the obedient One here. That was food for the Lord.
I go on now to chapter 10 because His pathway here was for a very short time. The Lord Jesus says in Luke’s gospel, “the things concerning me have an end” (chap.22:37). Think of it; there were people in the land of Israel – Judæa as it was then – and Galilee who had an opportunity, a tremendous opportunity, but that opportunity was coming to an end; “the things concerning me have an end”. Those three and a half years were going to come to an end. Now we are in a different day, but this day will have an end too and we have an opportunity in this day because the things concerning the Lord Jesus are preached in His absence. This day will come to an end, but today is the day of opportunity because of the work that has been done by One who was obedient to the Father’s will. In John 10, the Lord Jesus looks on to what was before Him and He says, “I lay down my life that I may take it again”. He was going to lay down His life. There were many things in the life of Jesus which can be viewed in different ways. If you think of the resurrection for instance, you find that, as He says here, He had authority to lay down His life that He may take it again, but elsewhere it speaks about the Father raising Him (Rom.6:4), and that He was “made alive in the Spirit”, 1 Pet.3 18. Divine Persons were active in relation to the resurrection.
But when it came to the death of Jesus, no one took His life from Him, He laid it down. Men were responsible and the Lord Jesus says that plainly in Matthew’s gospel, that the Son of Man would be delivered up into the hands of man and they would kill Him (Matt.20:18). That is, they would have their responsibility in that, but “Pilate wondered if he was already dead”, Mark 15:44. He laid down His life and He delivered up His spirit; He had the authority to lay down His life. No other person on earth has ever had that authority, but Jesus did. He had the power to do that and He did it there upon the cross. And He says “I have received this commandment of my Father”; even that was in obedience to the will of His God and Father. Think of that. He was there upon the cross and it was a protracted time, those six hours. What a day it was, that terrible day. We have a hymn that speaks of that ‘day of days’ (Hymn 347), and what a day it was, that awful time when the Lord Jesus endured so much.
I have often thought about the Lord in John’s gospel saying, “Are there not twelve hours in the day”, John 11:9. Think of that day. Three hours of unjust treatment at the hands of men, justice abandoned, and for these three hours He suffered in the court of the high priest and in the court of Pilate.. What hours they were when every semblance of justice and uprightness was forsaken; “In his humiliation his judgment has been taken away”, Acts 8:33. And then the three hours upon the cross, exposed to all, lifted up as an object of ridicule and scorn, suffering in His body all the worst that men could do to Him. And then another three hours, in darkness suffering from the hands of God the terrible penalty of sin, all that God’s holy claims of justice required. There was perfect justice in these three hours. Sin had come in and God’s wrath against sin had to be expressed, and had to be expended. The Lord Jesus bore it there upon the cross. He bore God’s judgment against sin in its entirety and exhausted it. And then for three hours, for the remainder of that day, He was in death. He actually went into death, He laid down His life, He delivered up His spirit. He went into death conscious of the Father’s love for Him. “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. That day of days stands unique in the whole history of time, it stands unique in eternity, that one day when the Lord Jesus effected a work upon the cross that none other could effect. He bore God’s judgment against sin, and He also bore the sins of every one who puts their trust in Him.
Have we all done that? I have to come to it that I am a sinner, I have to do with God. There is no option about that; I will have to do with God at some time. I cannot face God in my sins but there is One, the Lord Jesus Himself, who offered Himself in my place. He knew what I deserved as a sinner. I deserved nothing but judgment, the judgment of God, but He offered Himself in my place, He took my sins upon Himself as if they were His own. He had no sins, but He took mine upon Himself as if they were His own and I know that because my faith is in Him, that blessed One. We all have to come to it that there is only one way of blessing and that is repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21), the One who was the Sin-bearer there. ‘Himself He could not save’, as Hymn 240 says, ‘justice must be done’. Our sins’ full load was laid upon Him, the sinless One;
‘For nothing less could God accept
In payment of that fearful debt.’.
Why did He do it? ‘Love’s stream too deeply flowed’. He could not leave us in our need without a way of escape. Could God do that? Could the Lord Jesus do that? No!
‘Himself He could not save,
Love’s stream too deeply flowed; …
Obedience to His Father’s will
And love to Him did all fulfil.’.
Think of Jesus’ obedience going “even unto death” (Phil.2:8): “even unto death” was the extent of it. He was not obedient to death – death had no claim upon Him – but His obedience went as far as that, “even unto death”. It could go no further. There is nothing more extreme than death. Jesus’ obedience was tested and it was not found wanting; He was obedient “even unto death”. And so He said of His life, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”. In His death, He was obedient, in His resurrection it was obedience too. Think of the Father’s feelings as the Lord Jesus lay in death. He had effected the work upon the cross, He had borne the judgment, His precious blood had been shed. The testimony to that perfect life laid down had given God a basis to come out in blessing to man, but Jesus was in death. Think of the Father’s heart when Jesus was in death. He could not leave Him there a moment longer than was necessary. There He was for those three days and three nights, and the Father was deprived of that perfect life that had been manifested upon the earth. Jesus was truly dead, He was truly in death. I say that carefully, He was really in death, but on that third day the Father was active. The Lord Jesus could not be held by death. No, He rose! In a sense, the Lord cast aside the restrictions of death, while the Father acted in raising Him by His glory (Rom.6:4).
All that the Father is was involved in the resurrection of Jesus; every divine attribute and the Father’s very nature was involved in the resurrection of Jesus. The Father could not leave Jesus there. One reason that He raised Him from among the dead was because of you and because of me, so that we should have an Object in heaven for our faith and for our affections, so that we should be delivered from all that there is in this world that has rejected Christ and have our affections bound up with Him where He is now. The Father was involved in that; He raised Him from among the dead. Think of the greatness of that resurrection morning. It was the first day of the week. No wonder we hold that day precious. It was the beginning, the beginning of things for God. In the first creation, when everything was completed, God rested, for He had not had any ground on which He could rest before everything was complete. But in the new creation everything has been completed and on that first glorious day of the week the Lord Jesus was raised, triumphant even over the power of death. God has set aside that day, He regards that day as special. No wonder believers hold that day special. It brings the new light of a Man who has overcome every hostile power and He is now risen and ascended; He is now at God’s right hand.
Oh beloved, all this was in obedience to the Father. I have been speaking of the Lord’s obedience. In John 14, He says, “I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world comes”. Do you know who the ruler of the world is? I am sure we all know who the ruler of the world is: “the whole world lies in the wicked one”, 1 John 5:19. Satan is the ruler of the world. Men do not realise it, they do not like to think of it. I would not have realised that Satan had a power over me before I came to the Lord. He blinds your eyes, that is something that he does; he blinds the eyes of men so they do not realise what power they are under – they think they are doing their own will. But “the ruler of the world comes …”. Was Jesus obedient to him? Never, not for one moment. His obedience was to the Father. He says, “the ruler of the world comes, and in me he has nothing”. Satan could not get an entrance into the Lord Jesus, but then Jesus adds, “but that the world may know …”, two things, “that I love the Father …”. Think of the Lord’s love for the Father, His absolute devotion to His Father. He could never have been disobedient because of His perfection, but there is also this motive for His obedience, the obedience of love, so He says, “I love the Father”.
And then He adds, “and as the Father has commanded me, thus I do”. This was the moment when Jesus was about to go to the cross, and this is what the Father’s commandment was. His obedience was not a legal obedience; His obedience was the obedience of love. He would not be diverted for one moment from the will of His God and Father. Oh beloved, let us take account of the Lord Jesus, let us feed upon Him more, and the more we feed upon Him the more we will grow in this feature ourselves. By nature we are disobedient creatures. That is just our nature. That is the first thing that we see in man in Genesis, that he was disobedient, and that is part of our nature. But we see here the One who manifested obedience in perfection, absolute perfection, and we see the pleasure that God had in Him. It was all out of love for His God and Father in order that He should secure for God an eternal response in those who have been formed after Him by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit having had His way in the hearts and souls of men, women and children in forming that character of manhood which is like Jesus.
The enemy comes along, the tempter comes, and he might say to you, Why do you not do this, why do you not go there? We know what it is like, we have all been young, although the test is not only when we are young, but also when we get older. Why not do this, what is wrong with it? Just say, I belong to the Lord Jesus and I cannot do that because it would be disobedient to Him. Oh beloved, what solid ground the believer has to stand on. And as we feed upon Him, as our hearts and our minds are occupied with Him, we find a greater desire to be like Him, and the Spirit is the power for that.
Well beloved, these are my simple thoughts. The obedience of the Christ is the divine standard and God is going to bring every proud thought down. We were reminded recently that the only people that God is against are the proud (Jas.4:6) and God is going to bring every proud thought down so that everything is secured to that standard, the obedience of the Christ. May we feed upon Him more, may we become more like Him, for His name’s sake.
Preaching of the gospel, Buckhurst Hill
25 October 2020
Andrew Martin
STRENGTHENING OURSELVES IN GOD
1 Samuel 30:6; Luke 22:41-44 (to ‘intently’);
Acts 16:23-25; Revelation 3:1,2 (to ‘remain’)
I was impressed as I read this verse recently as to David, who “strengthened himself in Jehovah his God”. The other scriptures speak of this in some way, but I started with this one because it is God Himself that comes into this passage. It is well known what David’s pathway had been up to this point and the place he was in at this time. The Philistines were not the company for a future king of Israel to be in, and disaster had come upon David and his men as they had made a raid, and had come back to find their own place burned with fire, and their wives and sons and daughters had been taken captive (vv.1-3). All that was precious to them naturally was gone and it appeared that out of all of David’s men, no one sympathised or would encourage him. Out of all the men gathered around David, not one was supportive It was a scene of absolute disaster, and David had suffered himself because his two wives had been taken captive. He was not immune to it – he had been with his men in the raid and now he experienced suffering.
But David knew where to turn; it says “he strengthened himself in Jehovah his God”. He drew near to God, you might say he sought Him out. God was not a strange God to David, he knew Him well. We read of that in his history as a shepherd boy; God was not a stranger to David, so it was not unusual for David to turn to Him. Scripture tells us that “he that draws near to God must believe that he is”, Heb.11:6. David knew, and was sure, that God is, and was, and is to come. How great David was, but it does not say that he strengthened himself in his own abilities, he did not immediately sit down to plan a strategy to retake what was lost, he did not seek the advice of those who may have counselled him, but he turned first to God.
What a lesson that is for us, for me especially, beloved brethren. How often when things come up, whatever they may be, whether in assembly life, in our local meetings, or practically, how often I may turn first to those who are close to me, and then maybe I pray. But David turned to God first. May we be helped to do that, because He is always there; we are told He is One that never slumbers or sleeps (Ps.121:4). We have not suffered as David suffered, but beloved brethren, we find ourselves in this scene at a very, very difficult time. We may not suffer so much as David, for he had suffered much loss along with his men but I think the present circumstances weigh on the minds and spirits of men generally, and no doubt very much on the saints. Normal practical fellowship is almost absent, as a brother said recently in prayer, and yet God is always there, and we have to turn to Him first, as David did. May God be the first Person that we turn to.
In Luke it speaks of the Lord Himself being strengthened. You might ask, why did the Lord need strengthening? We know who He is – Son of God, God in His own Person. We know the power that He had. Why did He need strengthening? Well, I am sure there is much that could be said about that, and if we are left here we will get help on Lord’s day in the reading, but I thought it gives us an impression of the reality both of the pressure that Jesus was under and the fact that He was a real Man. It is interesting to me that it says “an angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him”. Think of that! What a mission given to that angel to stand by and be with the Lord as He prayed. How great those creatures are, and I believe they are a divine resource to preserve the saints as those that are precious to God. How precious the Lord Jesus was to God at this moment!
A brother said recently that Satan assails those who are on their knees; those who turn to God in prayer are assailed and attacked by Satan himself. There is nothing more he hates than to see any one of us on our knees in dependence. How much more so the Lord. How Satan was driven by hatred and malice against the Lord. We cannot begin to understand what must have assailed the Lord Jesus, and yet as a Man, as a real Man, heaven's resources were open to Him and shown here in a very distinctive way. Angels were available to the Lord. In divine grace and compassion, such resource is available to us, and how much more we need it than the Lord Himself. We may often be the objects of angelic care and prove it without even praying; I think most of us can look back and see when God granted us angelic care and preservation.
This strengthening for the Lord was while He was in prayer, and we can strengthen ourselves in prayer. How difficult it is sometimes to pray and pray effectively. Sometimes we may feel we cannot speak to Him about something, but that is not the case; we can speak to God about anything. Sometimes we may feel that what we are concerned about is not something that we should pray about but He sympathises and knows it all. The Lord was in prayer. Think of the Son Himself kneeling as a Man in prayer to His Father! How affecting to take account of it in such circumstances of extreme pressure. You might say that He had the power to move onwards, but no, He did not, He first committed Himself to His Father in prayer.
In Acts, it mentions the apostles praying like their Lord and Master but I thought that there is strengthening for us in singing. It is precious when we are able to sing in praise to divine Persons alongside those who love Him. When we are able to be together and to sing, let us not just sing; let it be singing directed by the Spirit of God. I think it brings much encouragement to the spirit. It is not just to be something we would do to start and end the meeting; there is real uplifting and encouragement in it. Singing is a very real and important way of praising divine Persons. Paul and Silas were doing that, they were praising God with singing; there was a purpose to it. I wondered at how they could do it. They were not just put in prison, it says they were scourged. We often speak of that in relation to the Lord’s sufferings; He was scourged before He was crucified. This scourging would have ended with the backs of Paul and Silas being covered in stripes; what pain they would have been in and yet they were singing. It is something that each one of us can be engaged in, sisters and brothers together.
I finish with an exhortation as we are together, to myself firstly, that we might be helped by the power of the Holy Spirit to simply strengthen the things that remain. The Holy Spirit is with us in all the things we have spoken of, strengthening ourselves in God in prayer and through singing. He speaks to the assemblies, and the word is to “strengthen the things that remain”. We may look around and sometimes wonder what remains, but we have been taught that what these last four assemblies represent goes right through to the end of the dispensation. There is much in these verses to the different assemblies, but in relation to my impression, I was just affected by this word, “Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain”. May we be encouraged to do that. It may be that we can only do it in a small way locally at the moment while we are denied larger gatherings for fellowship. We feel that, but we do have one another locally, we have been allowed to continue to gather for certain occasions and I am sure that is a result of much prayer. However feeble things seem outwardly; may we be helped in our measure to strengthen what remains and be encouraged in that. There is divine resource and support and help for all those who seek to do so. May the Lord bless the word and may we be encouraged, for His name’s sake.
Given at a meeting for ministry, Strood
4 February 2021
Richard A. Smith