FEATURES OF DIVINE PRESENTATION
[p. 89] FEATURES OF DIVINE PRESENTATION
Colossians 1: 19 - 22; Ephesians 5: 25 - 27
My subject, dear brethren, is presentation, our being presented by God to Himself, and our being presented as the assembly by Christ to Himself. The truth involved is exalted, and it should be so regarded. The Lord would encourage us to look into these exalted features of the truth; they are for us, they are for our perfecting. As we draw near to the end of our wonderful dispensation, the idea of perfecting is in place and, I may say, in prominence, for nothing imperfect will enter heaven. Hence we find the apostle Paul speaking much of the perfecting of the saints. In this epistle to the Colossians he speaks of presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus. In the epistle to the Ephesians he speaks of gifts given by Christ, ascended on high, as for the perfecting of the saints. So that we can see from these words of the great workman, Paul, that the finished product from skilled hands is what is in order, what God has in His mind, at the present time; and the idea of presentation fills out this thought. Perfection has presentation in mind.
The idea of presentation is best learned from the Lord Himself. After He rose from the dead He presented Himself to His disciples; it is said that He “presented himself living”, (Acts 1: 3). That, of course, is not the only thought attaching to Jesus, beloved brethren, the thought of His deity is always present. But in view of the formation of the assembly, it was important that those who should form it, and indeed who should have something to do with the inauguration of it, should see Him living. Not only the simple fact of His being alive from among the dead, but that He should be seen according to His own skill in presentation of Himself. It was not simply that He was there as risen (we are told elsewhere [p. 90] that He came and stood in the midst), but that, in the beginning of the Acts, He presented Himself living, as if to call attention to the great thought of life in Himself. It was the life that God had in mind for men, dear brethren. He is said indeed, personally, to be “the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us” (1 John 1: 2). That is a greater thought, it involves His Person more, although as Man, that eternal life which was with the Father seen and heard and handled and contemplated. “Which was with the Father” alludes to what He was as Man with God, whether before His death or after. But He had in mind, in the presentation of Himself to His disciples, to call attention to the life, to a risen Man, a Man in a new condition, He being the first to have it; so that He presented Himself. It was a matter of His own thought, whatever the attitude may have been, it was to impress them with that, with Himself as alive. He assembled with them too, which is an additional thought, so as to carry the idea into the assembly which was to be a living state of things, ordered but living.
Then in keeping with this thought, Peter, in Acts 9, presents Tabitha, who had died, living. She was a worthy person, but she died; the point is not simply that she died, in the ordinary sense, but that death should come in on such a one as that. One who was so highly esteemed for her works’ sake, that is works of a kind, the making of garments; these were exhibits that her admirers presented to Peter, clothes for needy people. I need not say that there is no life in them, nor did the garments she made require death as a preliminary. The first garments made did require death; God made garments out of skins, but there is no evidence that Dorcas was occupied in making clothes of that kind. Yet the exhibits were what she had made — “body-coats and garments”, just ordinary garments. Death came in on that work. The idea is that that is not the thing in the assembly. God is moving out; Peter is visiting all quarters; Paul is already on the scene; scattered saints are preaching Christ; converts are coming on; making garments is not the thought, more than that is needed, so that death came in on that. There was the dead body and there were the exhibits, no suggestion of life. But Peter prayed, having put all the weepers out, the people that were so occupied with Dorcas. He had learnt from Jesus; for that is the idea, dear brethren, learning from Jesus — Jesus had done the same thing. We must learn everything from Christ, even the environment for service; we must learn how to serve in proper environment, to learn to shut out all that militates against the Spirit. Peter had learnt that; he put them all out, and he kneeled down and prayed. That is an action that is within the range of everyone, to kneel down and pray; he had learnt that from Christ too. He learnt, not only how to speak, but what attitude to assume in certain circumstances, not that we should be attitudinarians, but, at the same time we should be right in any circumstances. Some needs are great and require excessive exercise, and kneeling down denotes that the matter on hand is serious. I have no doubt that solution of difficulties would come about if we took them to heart in this way more. But he turned to the body; the Lord had done that too, He turned to living bodies; He turned to the woman in Simon’s house; she was a living woman, she loved Him; that is the idea of life. Let there be no pretence to divine life aside from love; love is the expression of it. The Lord looked toward her. He turned toward her. Peter turned to Dorcas; she was still dead, but she opened her eyes and sat up and, we are told, “having given her his hand, he raised her up, and ... presented her living” (verse 41). The Lord had done [p. 92] a similar thing; He had done it in regard of Himself. The most perfect presentation of life was in Christ, but especially as He presented Himself. It was an act of skill, as I might say, in deference, too, to the great persons to whom He had come: He presented Himself. How one would love to see the Lord deliberately doing that, some attitude by which He would convey the thought of life in Himself. It is that which is to fill the universe, that life.
Well now, as I said, we get the thought of presentation in that way, and it is comforting, speaking of this, that Jude, so as to assure our hearts, says, in a beautiful doxology (another thing, dear brethren, that is to be noted in the apostolic writings, the fervency and the depth of feeling that marked these men) “To him that is able to keep you without stumbling ...” (there is always that danger, so in Colossians 1: 23 the ‘if’ comes in in verse 23) “and to set you” [or present you] “with exultation blameless before his glory”. Think of the brilliancy of that light, the shining out of the glory, beloved! God is able to keep us, to set us up there, “God our Saviour” to whom he ascribes “glory, majesty, might, and authority, from before the whole age, and now, and to all the ages. Amen” (Jude 24, 25). What great thoughts encircle what I am speaking of, dear brethren, being set up, or presented, in the presence of the glory by God Himself. He is able to do it; He is able to keep us from stumbling so as to do it. That is what He is aiming at, to keep us from stumbling, for the danger is great; and you may be sure that if God is aiming at great things, Satan is all the more aiming to defeat Him, so we are to be warned, but God is able to keep us.
Now in Colossians we have perhaps the greatest thought in this respect. Colossians is what may be called a tentative epistle; it is not final for we are not yet in Canaan, and hence the ‘if’, but everything needed is brought in to induce a forward movement.
[p. 93] There is no standing still until we are seated in the heavenlies, dear brethren, that is Ephesians. Colossians contemplates that, though we are still here, we are very near heaven, in the confines of Canaan, in fact passing over the Jordan. It is an epistle to meditate on, to take account of the surroundings, the group of great things that are presented there, so that we might go over. The point is to go over, not to retrograde. The enemy is seen in this epistle as set to prevent our entrance, and hence the stress of the apostle to promote movement forward without faltering. So we have “the circumcision of the Christ” (chapter 2: 11), one of the greatest thoughts, the putting off of the body of the flesh in the circumcision of the Christ. We take that on as educated, as instructed, in what the flesh is and that it is put off judicially in the circumcision of the Christ — the body of the flesh. Then we read that we are “buried with him in baptism, in which ye have been also raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead” (verse 12). A great display of power is brought into our vision, the operation of God who raised Him. The greatest expression of power is in the resurrection of Christ, and that is for our faith. And then, quickened with Him, which is a real present thing by the Spirit in our affections. It is most precious to contemplate the thought, dear brethren, that we are quickened together with Christ, that is, made to live in our minds and affections, made to live with Christ. ‘With’ is a great characteristic word in Colossians — “with Christ”.
Now the verses read in chapter 1 are among the greatest in the epistle. As you will all know, the reference is not to the Father, but to the Deity, the Godhead: “the fulness” is of the Godhead. The Authorised Version has “the Father” (verse 19) but it is not there in the original; the point is “the fulness”, without saying what the fulness is; all the fulness dwelt in Christ. The word ‘bodily’ is not here; it is in chapter 2; here it is literally, ‘in Him all the fulness was pleased to dwell’. We have “of the Godhead” added in chapter 2, but not formally mentioned in the original here. What does the word ‘fulness’ mean? What can it mean but the fulness of God? We are educated into that, just as we are into the word ‘greatness’ in Hebrews 8: “the greatness in the heavens”. What is that greatness but the greatness of God? It is really to emphasise the thought that the fulness is there, all the fulness is there in Christ. So what is stated is that the ‘fulness [of the Godhead] reconciles all things to Itself’. (I am quoting now from the better translation by J.N.D., probably known to all of us; if not, it should be, for it is one of the greatest treasures that has come down to us). The Godhead Itself is occupied in reconciling. Elsewhere we are told: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5: 19). Now, what I would remark, dear brethren, is this, that what Scripture presents to us, sin having come in, is that God never surrenders His majesty in Deity. The establishment of government in Eden, in “the Cherubim, and the flame of the flashing sword” (Genesis 3: 24), is the testimony to the intactness (if I may use that word, speaking reverently) of the Deity. There is no change in that respect; let none of us think that there can be! The Deity is maintained in all Its majesty and absoluteness. But then God, at the same time, is making clothes, dear brethren! There are the cherubim and the flame of the flashing sword at the gate, as it were, of Eden, but in putting them there, God is not without feeling. If you look at this translation I have alluded to, you will note He speaks with feeling, as much as to say, ‘Oh, what will happen if man lives for ever in his sins!’ God recoiled from the thought: it must not be. There is feeling, so He has recourse to His [p. 95] government; it is inexorable, there it stands; there can be no variation from that sword. But He is making clothes, that blessed God humbled Himself, dear brethren, to make clothes, to make clothes for them who are shut out of Eden by His government. Is that not touching? Well, there are the two lines that run down, wholly seen in Jesus — God come down, not only to make clothes for man, but in Jesus, to die. “It is Christ who has died” (Romans 8: 34), but the One who died has His part in Deity, never loses it, never surrenders it; but He died, hence the Deity here has a means by which to reconcile all things to Itself. What a triumph that is! How God is brought down, dear brethren, comes down, to be beside us, to serve us in manhood and die. Of course you cannot say that God died — that would be wrong — yet the One who died was God. He could say, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8: 58). We must never surrender that thought. But He has become flesh, “The Word became flesh”, we are told (John 1: 14). He took a condition that He could lay down. (It is no imaginary thing, it is no sham, beloved friends; it is real). He was perfect in it, feeling as a man, feeling pain, feeling sorrow, weeping — all these things are food for our souls — and in Him God had a means of reconciling all things to Himself, or “to itself”, as the passage should read. And then, not only all things, but persons too, not all persons, but persons, for all persons are not reconciled — that is a solemn fact. “All things” allude to the universe, to that which God intended for the display of Himself. But then persons are reconciled; that is, “you” ourselves. “You ... has it reconciled in the body of his flesh through death; to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it”. It is an unrebuking gaze; God can look on us with infinite complacency through the work of Jesus. He has it in mind, He presents us Himself to Himself, in [p. 96] perfect consistency with Himself, with His gaze, with His sight. Now this is a very great fact and should powerfully act upon us, as to what God has in His mind, the perfecting of the saints. How it induces holiness! how it induces unblamableness! If He has in His mind holiness, then holiness is my business; if He has in His mind unblamableness, then unblamableness is my business as before Him. He has given me the means of it, the Holy Spirit in me and other accompanying things — ministry, fellowship, prayers, and so on, all have in view that the saints should be holy, “Be ye holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1: 16). We are to be unblamable, irreproachable, not only in the sight of the brethren, but in the sight of God; that is what He has in His mind. What a tribute to the work of Christ, for it is “in the body of his flesh through death”, as it says.
Well, now, the other thought is in Ephesians. There it is a question of the assembly; and, in approaching this subject, those of us who love Jesus are drawn to His side. When here He looked for sympathy in suffering, but He found none (Psalm 69: 20) as He approached the cross. Now He looks for sympathy in His joys and He finds sympathisers. Luke 15 shows how the Lord, the Spirit, and the Father, have joy and have those who share it sympathetically. And I would say here, dear brethren, speaking very carefully and reverently, that the life of divine Persons in revelation is very largely made up in what They find in the saints. They live in Themselves, of course, abstractly. They live before and beyond creation. There is really no need to say that God is independent of all creation: but He is pleased to come in, and, if He is pleased to say that wisdom was by Him in the creation and that her “delights were with the sons of men” (Proverbs 8: 31) we must take notice of that. If Jesus says to the saints that are on the earth and to the excellent “In them is all my delight” (Psalm 16: 3), we must take note of that. If God says that the saints are His inheritance, we must take note of that — He means it! We must understand what He came out for. There is what He is in His inscrutable infinitude — He dwells in light unapproachable — but He has come into circumstances involving humiliation so as to bring about something. He is pleased to intimate that He is seeking conditions in relation to men, that, as it were, He lives in those relations. How wonderful that is! — it is to me, dear brethren. The saints are so essential to God! And so the father of the prodigal says: “It was right to make merry and rejoice”. Why should we be merry? Because of the returning one, the son who was dead and is alive again, who was lost and is found, with the best robe on him — remember that! — with the shoes on his feet and the ring on his hand. He is representative of the repenting sinner. The Father’s delight is in him. In the words said to the elder brother, “It was right to make merry and rejoice”. He defends the position. Let no one question it, for God will defend the position, He thinks so much of the saints.
And so the Lord in this passage, so often quoted, “loved the assembly”. “Christ also loved the assembly” — it is in the past. He loves it, of course, and He will love it, but He loved it, and He “delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word” — that is how the sanctification is apparent. But the point is to sanctify it so that He “might present the assembly to himself glorious”, present it to Himself.
We were speaking today of Isaac, in Genesis 24, and let me remind you, dear brethren, that the servant’s name is not given, nor is it a mere domestic, as in an earlier chapter, it is the eldest servant in Abraham’s house; he is a man of importance. That [p. 98] is the point in regard to the servant in Genesis 24. But when Rebecca asks about Isaac, he says, “That is my master!” — not ‘my master’s son’, though Abraham was still alive. It is a tribute to Jesus, He is equal with God. If Abraham is master to the servant, so is Isaac master. That is how Scripture speaks. Let us not allow our minds to work in these things; let us follow the Scripture. So here, if He presents the assembly to Himself, that is His deity; no one but a divine Person could do that. Adam did not present Eve to himself (although he was indeed a type of Christ), God presented her to Adam. But the Father does not bring the assembly to Christ here, Christ presents her to Himself. “He is thy Lord”, as is said in Psalm 45, “and worship thou him”. So we get these informal statements that testify to His personal glory; the Scriptures are full of them, so that we are built up in them; we breathe them, as it were; in the household of faith we breathe the testimony to the glory of Jesus. No impartial person can read Scripture without arriving, as I may say, informally in his soul, at the deity of Christ. It is seen there from the very outset. Of course, one might go further and say that the Jehovah Elohim who brought Eve to Adam was Jesus; the Jehovah that made the earth is Jesus — “He was in the world, and the world had its being through him” (John 1: 10). And so here, in this informal way, He “loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things”. Now that is the other side of this great subject, dear brethren. The Lord is engaged in it now constantly, this washing of water is the means of it, but the great thought in His mind is sanctification. He prayed about this to His Father, and He is now engaged in sanctifying us, purifying us “by the washing of water by the word;” that is to say, the ministry of the word, as in the power of the Spirit, is intended to purify our souls, to purify us as He is pure — that is the standard. There must be correspondence with Him, and the ministry of the word in the power of the Spirit has that in mind. The ‘word‘ is to be noted, it brings out the mind of God and the mind of Christ, it acts on our minds so that we come to value what is more excellent. That is a sanctifying idea; if I grasp something more excellent, I am correspondingly purified, I am correspondingly sanctified, and that is what is going on. What is going on, as I have been remarking, is the perfecting of the saints in view of this presentation, so that there should be nothing unfinished, nothing imperfect. The Lord said to His Father, “I have finished the work ...” but He had said earlier, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and I should finish his work” (John 4: 34). He set out there the idea of a skilled workman — another thought that should be before us. Unskilled labour may bring in raw material indeed, but skill is required for perfection — that is what you see in Jesus, correspondingly in Paul and in all the apostles — holy, skilled labour. It is seen in Exodus, too, in Bezaleel and others — what remarkable skill is seen in the building of the tabernacle! That is what is going on, dear brethren, and the Lord would call us into it. He has need of skilled labour — of unskilled, too, for we are all to be working — but the need is for skilled labour that every man should be presented perfect in Christ. So in the grand presentation there will be nothing at all to cause distress, everything will be in keeping with Christ: “that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things”.
May God use these thoughts, dear brethren, for our blessing.