CHRIST AS AUTHOR AND LEADER
[p. 281] CHRIST AS AUTHOR AND LEADER
Acts 3: 15, 16; Acts 5: 31, 32; Hebrews 12: 2; Hebrews 2: 10 - 12
I have in mind to speak of one word that is found in each of these passages I have read from the ordinary translation. In the first passage it is translated “Prince” and also in the second passage, but in the third passage it is translated “Author;” and in the fourth “Captain”. These English words, Prince, Author and Captain, represent one Greek word of which I want to speak. The Lord Jesus is designated by these words in these four settings. There may be a certain shade of difference in each as to meaning, but the primary and general significance of the word in the original is one who inaugurates, or originates, or begins something, as of himself, and sets it out, so that the idea is exemplified. Then the idea presented in each is to be passed on and is to be absorbed in the intelligences of the saints. The four features in the four passages read, as I hope we shall see by the Lord’s help, are to give us a general idea of the great confession called our confession, the great confession or profession in which we have part. First of all, dear brethren, we have the idea of life. Without this and its corresponding effect in result, all our profession must be ineffective, and so we have the great thought set out in Christ that He is the Originator or Author of life, and that He has exemplified it, for christianity is not a matter of doctrine merely; it is a matter of substance. Hence we find that the Lord is alluded to by the apostle John as “That which was from the beginning;” he has in mind the life, what was seen, heard, handled, looked upon, and contemplated. Now this is the first great feature that I would dwell upon, and what is to be remarked at the outset as to life is that we have it in its vegetable form in Genesis 1, and also in its animal form. It is seen in the vegetable [p. 282] form and in the fishes, in the birds, in the animals of the field, and finally in man, but in regard of him, we have the breath of life, that is, the breath came in from God. Life in the case of man was the outcome of that, and man became a living soul. Now this works out throughout the Scriptures for us as christians, the breath is the Spirit, “the Spirit is life”, we are told, which means life potentially. Christ is the life as worked out, but there is the idea of a Spirit of life so that things should be worked out, the great expanse involved in the word and particularly in the mind of God. Life is a prime thought with God. I have no doubt it is a relative thought, although applied to God Himself, for He is said to be the living God, as that word only has force in view of the presence of death, but still the thing is there. It is a prime thought and the originator of it, the author of it, is Christ. And in order to work it out according to the divine thought, He says to His Father, as about to die, “Father ... glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: as thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given him, he should give them life eternal” (John 17: 1, 2). Now that is the position, dear brethren, opened up in our hearing as between the divine Persons as the first element, as you might say, in the Lord’s mind in that wonderful chapter. How full that mind was, how rich it was in divine thoughts for man! Chapters 13 to 17 impress us with the fulness and richness, the infinitude of the divine thoughts that were in the heart and mind of Christ as He communed with His disciples, and then with His Father. But in order to glorify the Father He says, “As thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal”. That is to say, He puts it entirely on the ground of sovereignty, for those to have it are sovereignly selected and given to the Son. What will He do with [p. 283] them? What can He do with them? What office can they fill? What representation of Him or of God can there be without life? And, so as to make clear what He had in mind, He proceeds to tell His Father that, “This is the eternal life ...” — not that His Father did not know; of course, dear brethren, there is no such thought as that — it would be irreverent even to think it — it is that we might hear what passed between Them and understand how great a place this matter has with Them. And, as the Lord says to His Father, “This is the eternal life”, let us hear what He says about it. He is not, for the moment, thinking of eternal blessedness, of a place in heaven, what He has in His mind is what is to be down here, what is to be representative, so that the Father should be glorified down here. Hence He says, “This is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God”. There will be no such thought as eternal life in heaven. It is because we are here in the presence of what is idolatrous that the Lord speaks in this way, that the true God should be apprehended. For it is a question of the glorification of God as the Father here, and those given to the Son are to be taken on and given eternal life. The life is not simply that they live for ever, or even live in blessedness, but that they are to take on the idea of the true God down here. So that, if there be only one of them on earth, there is a testimony against all idolatry wherever it is. And then He says, “Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. “Jesus Christ”, not ‘the Son;’ the life is in the Son, of course; it is one thing to know what it is, and another thing to know where it is — it is in the Son, where God has placed it; it is placed beyond all reach of contamination and corruptibility; it is in the Son. But it is Jesus Christ that is to be known. How are we to be here as representative of God save as we know Jesus Christ? that is to say, it is the Man here.
[p. 284] Now that is what I had especially to bring before you as to this matter of the Author of life, and what stands related to it in Peter’s mind, that is, the man standing beside him, this man who lay at the gate of the temple and who had been lame. Peter saw that this man attracted attention, as Lazarus had attracted attention, for many believed on Jesus because of Lazarus — the idea being the representation of life. They saw this man, it says; Peter saw that, he saw that the man drew attention. He himself, of course, drew attention, and John drew attention also, but not much. Even as regards the man, Peter had to direct his attention to them; he said, “Look on us;” but the lame man who had been made whole did not need to ask anybody to look on him. They looked on him, knowing what he had been, and now they see what he is. And Peter, knowing this, speaks about Jesus as the Author of life. He says, “By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong whom ye behold and know;” and then he adds to that, “the faith which is by him has given him this complete soundness in the presence of you all”. It is not in heaven, it is “before you” (chapter 4: 10), before men. Now you see what is in mind. Peter immediately brings in what I have been speaking of — the idea of strength. Well, that is one thing. We have been speaking of young people; I believe the ministry is largely for them. Why is it for them? Is the ministry arising from those who minister? It arises from Christ; He is the Author of all these things; He is the Author of every bit of spiritual ministry. He is the Author of everything that is of God, and He is the Author of the present ministry that is of the Spirit. It is no question now of praising it, but if there be anything that is spiritual, He is the Author of it; and what has He in mind? He wants to get the young ones. The old ones are necessarily passing away, and others come; it is the coming [p. 285] ones the Lord is thinking of. Not that He is neglectful of the old ones; He knows about them, He knows what they have been to Him, they are treasures in the measure in which they have been faithful; but He is thinking of the young. So here is a man, and Peter says, “by faith in his name, his name has made this man strong whom ye behold and know”. John later says, ‘You young men are strong; I want you because you are’. The Lord really ministers to us first because of what He wishes us to be, but He bases it on what we are. There must be something: new birth means there is something, the presence of the Spirit in a believer means there is something more, and the ministry is based on that. John says to the fathers (he does not neglect them), “Ye have known him that is from the beginning”. The great value of the old brothers and sisters is their experience; they have what young people cannot have, and it is well to get the benefit of it. John salutes them, as it were, and says, “Ye have known him that is from the beginning;” there are no exhortations to them. But he comes to the young men, and he says, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong” — but strength is not all. Peter says, ‘This man is strong’, but that is not all. You want to be perfectly sound, completely sound, that is what the Lord has in His mind in regard of life, it is that the believer is sound, that is, there is a uniform state of things in him. There is not a defect, not a bone, or a sinew, or a blood-vessel, or the heart, or any organ, defective. That is the idea, that He has made this man sound; he is perfectly sound. That is what is needed, and that is what John had in his mind. John doubtless would remember this. He was present and had to do with this man; he says, “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong”. Your strength is needed, but be careful of the world, with all your strength, you may look to the world;
[p. 286] If you are married, your wife may too; the grown-up children may look to it too. If your strength is to be useful and used, you must look out for that. “Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world is passing, and its lust, but he that does the will of God abides for eternity” (1 John 2: 15 - 17). Now that is Jesus Christ, that is the knowledge of Jesus Christ, it is a question of One here who does the will of God — the sent One, “Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. What is more to be desired in service or in testimony here, than to correspond with Christ in any sense, and in all senses? Wherever it is a question of service here we should seek to correspond with His life and His service in this world as the sent One.
Now I pass on to chapter 5, where you get the same word but it is in the sense of making things effective. We have been speaking today of the onus the Lord took on and how in Luke He says “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses”. Now Luke, in this second narrative of his, in quoting Peter again and the other apostles, says that the Lord is a Leader, not now of life, but to give effect to things. He is by the right hand of God exalted, and He is that to give effect to things. He uses one and another, but He is the Author of this great service of making things effective amongst us, for after all, what is light unless it becomes effective? He is the “leader and saviour, to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins”. How much these things are needed that we might correspond with the Lord in this great initiative way of making things effective, for it is not only what is said on the platform, but making the thing effective. So Peter says, “We are his witnesses”. He brings in the resurrection, the exaltation, and he says, ‘We are all witnesses, and not only we, but the Holy Spirit’. As I was saying, dear brethren, the Lord is aiming at bringing us all into what He is going on with. There is too much of leaving things with leading ones; leadership is right, but He is aiming at bringing all into the thing, young and old, brothers and sisters. The Holy Spirit is the witness, and you cannot limit that to any man or men; the Holy Spirit is the witness, and He will use whom He pleases. Let no one exempt himself from this great service of making things effective, for the Holy Spirit is witness. He would use the youngest or the eldest in regard of what we know to make it effective. The Holy Spirit is given to those that obey, as much as to say, there can be nothing without this principle. If you obey, you are at His bidding. What a great thing it is to be at the bidding of the blessed Spirit of God! He is given to you because you obey in principle, and He wants to maintain you in obedience and He will use you.
I pass on now to Hebrews 12 so as to bring out what is really in mind as exemplary in christianity; that is, what Jesus does as the Author and Finisher of faith, or, as it might read, the Leader and Completer. This great thought God has in mind, the life of faith; let us just dwell on it for a moment. We may say the thief in Luke 23 hardly knew anything of it, and, if it were merely a question of saving people and taking them up to paradise, there would be nothing in it except the element that saves us. But there is this great idea of the life of faith, and the Spirit of God so loves it that He begins with Abel and carries the thought right down in chapter 11, and then He says, “Looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”, and “Let us ... run with endurance the race that lies before us”. He has been the Inaugurator of this great thing in which we [p. 288] all have part. It is that which is so delightful to God, pending the coming of the Lord when it will be no longer a question of faith but of sight. The Lord honoured it, and said to Thomas, “Blessed they who have not seen and have believed” (John 20: 29). He is become the Author of that, the Inaugurator of it, and the setter-out of it, in His own Person. Let us just for a moment dwell on Him. If one, by the Spirit, can help in the matter, to ponder the Lord over against what I have been saying, as He takes up a position in this world in lowly dependence upon God. “Preserve me, O God:” He says, “for in I trust in thee” (Psalm 16: 1). Think of Him who is the Author of life, think of Him who created all things and upholds all things, taking that lowly attitude here where we are; for geographical position has nothing to do with this matter, wherever we may be on earth. Jesus took up that attitude, and He says to Jehovah, “y Lord”, and He says, “to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight”. What an example, dear brethren, for young christians here beginning the life of faith! What place have the saints with you? What place had they with Jesus? He says, ‘All My delight is there’. As regards God He says, “My goodness extendeth not to thee” — one wonders how He could say that, but He said it; it is to bring out the lowliness, the humility of One who is exemplary of the great idea of faith. “The saints”, He says. The Lord is greatly helping the young as to the saints. The natural disposition of the young people would be to complain about the saints; and, in that respect, it is wise for parents to avoid complaining about the brethren in the ears of their children. I know it is difficult; indeed it is a reproach to oneself to have to say that it is difficult to avoid complaint. There is too much complaint, I know that; but complaint in the ears of the children is pretty sure to teach them [p. 289] to go that way, and to lessen the value of the saints in their minds. Now this is an important matter, for the saints, beloved, have to be understood abstractly as well as concretely. I quite admit that, if you look at me in my everyday life, there is plenty to complain of; but if I learn to stand on the top of the rocks and get the vision of the Almighty, then it is different. I learn to look at the saints, as I am entitled to, entirely in relation to the work of God in them. I am entitled to do that; God does it. Were I to do it, I should have much less complaint. But children are prone to complain, and the more distant we are from the Centre, the more we shall complain. Those who were on the edge of the camp complained, we are told, in the wilderness. So that complaint has to be judged in that sense, and Psalm 16 which sets out so wonderfully the path of Jesus as the Author and Finisher of faith, is an example. He says as to the saints, “All my delight” is there. Even the Father, speaking of the Son, does not say ‘All’, He just says, “my delight”, for He had ourselves in mind; He would bring us into it, He would not leave us out; we are essential to the pleasure of God in relation to Jesus. But here this lowly Man, looking up to God and speaking to Him as His Lord, says, “My goodness extendeth not to thee”, but His mind and heart extended to the saints and He found satisfaction in them. What a thought that is! What pleasure the Lord has in these meetings of the brethren! He came in and went out amongst them, Peter says. He had seasons of joy when He was here with His disciples.
And then He spoke of His inheritance. What an inheritance He had! I was speaking of young people here. Some may be just asking for fellowship, as we say, but you see the thing becomes hackneyed. What do you mean when you say, ‘I want to break bread?’ What are the saints to you? What the saints are [p. 290] must come into your mind. You are going to be with them, you are casting in your lot with them for time and for eternity. As you go on you will say, ‘I would not go to heaven without them’. That is in principle what the epistle to the Ephesians teaches. We are raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. There is no such thought, as far I see, of one saint going to heaven by himself. I know Elijah and Enoch were taken up, but the idea of going to heaven is for God’s satisfaction. It is for our blessing, of course, for our exaltation, but we go up together, made to sit down together in the heavenlies. Now we have to learn, in coming in amongst the saints, to value them in that way. You are committing yourself to them for time and for eternity, and the more you know them, the better you love them. God loves them; the Lord Jesus said, “In them is all my delight”. Then He says, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”. He is alluding to the book of Joshua; that is what any christian, any believer, should expect, that God apportions him something. You want what God apportions you. With the Lord Jesus as a Man of faith here, it was a question of what was allotted to Him. Think of the Lord Jesus limiting Himself, so as to be, as a Man, an example to us. “The lines are fallen” — where have they fallen? They fell “unto me”. The book of Micah teaches us that when God is dealing governmentally with His people in judgment there are no lines, no apportionment. In christendom there is no apportionment, there is no apportionment for people who take their own way. The Lord apportions things to people who love Him, who take the place of dependence, and is it not better to leave the matter in His hands? “The lines are fallen unto me” — better to take the Father’s apportionment. How humble and simple this makes us; it keeps us from treading on other people’s paths and territories; it is a question of what comes to us, and God makes it known. He says, ‘That is for you’, and it is measured, mind you, it is no accident; “the lines” means it is measured. God is a God of measure (2 Corinthians 10: 13): I love that! That is for me; God sees to it that that will not be taken away from me. As the Lord said of Mary of Bethany, she “has chosen the good part” — that was to minister to Him; and, He says, it “shall not be taken from her”. He accorded to her a portion in what she did.
Then He goes on to speak of life; He is the Author of life. Now He says to God, “Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol” — how perfectly He accepted death; was it nothing to Him? ‘Oh’, you say, ‘the cross, the forsaking of God, were terrible things’. But death was something to Him. “Take me not away in the midst of my days!” Did He not feel dissolution? (I speak reverently). Did He not feel keenly that it was before Him to die? Nothing is imposed on Him, I admit, He laid down His life as a divine Person; but He was a Man and He contemplated life. I am seeking to show what a man according to God should be, and how a man living the life of faith appraises everything, and ignores nothing that comes from God. He says, “Take me not away in the midst of my days!” He felt it; but He says, “Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt make known to me the path of life”. Think of the Lord of glory, the Creator and Sustainer of everything, the Originator of life, using such language! To God it was delightful, every moment of it, but it is also exemplary for every one of us that we might live the life of faith, and the life of faith is to be in constant touch with God. Read that psalm and you will see. And right at the end He says, “Thou wilt make known to me the path of life”.
[p. 292] Think of Jesus saying that. It is a perfect Man under God’s eye here pursuing the way right up to the glory. He says, “thy countenance is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore”. Well, that is what He is, dear brethren, He is the Author of that life and He is the Finisher of that life. As I said, it led up to the presence of God. So here, as the writer says, “Looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith: who, in view of the joy lying before him, endured the cross, having despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. He is set down, the thing is finished. I hope I have made this thought attractive to your hearts, and that you will look into it — the life of faith. We have been speaking of the coming of the Lord. It is well to think of it — to wait for God’s Son from heaven — but filling out the interval is the test. And what were the Thessalonians doing? They were serving the living and true God, and that is the word for us, what the interval is to be filled up with; it is to be filled up with faith and all that goes with faith, the service of God, the living and the true God.
Well now, in the fourth scripture we rise to what I have just been speaking of, the service of God, how that Jesus is said to be the Leader of our salvation, and what is brought in here, as you will observe, is the fulness of Deity. I mean in the sense in which Deity is operative, “For whom are all things, and by whom are all things”. That is to say, if He is leading sons to glory, it is for Himself, “For whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory”. Now this is not taking us to heaven literally; it is not when the Lord comes; that is not what is alluded to. What is alluded to, dear brethren, is what God has in His mind for Himself. He is helping us, I believe, on these lines. As we draw near to the end of the assembly’s period [p. 293] on earth all this comes into prominence, what is for God, and in leading many sons to glory, that is the thought. Not simply taking them up in power, but leading them means that the sons are intelligent; the idea involves intelligence, for it is said that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” (Romans 8: 14). They understand leadership, and not merely in an objective leader, but in the promptings of the Spirit within them. It is a very great matter, to be so clear in your soul of uncertainty, uncertain promptings, that you discern the Spirit, that you discern the gracious impelling movements of leadership in the Spirit. “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. They are marked off, you see them moving; the locusts have no king but they move, they move together, they go forth, we are told, in bands (Proverbs 30: 27), a very great thought, a great spectacle for heaven to see persons who are linked up in this way in intelligence as possessed of the Spirit of God moving together. Well, this thought is extended in the passage I read, “In bringing many sons to glory”, He makes “perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. Now I want to finish with this thought of being perfect, that the Leader of our salvation, dear brethren, is perfect. You say, ‘What salvation is it?’ Oh, this is a glorious salvation; this is salvation. When in Ephesians 2 the apostle is speaking about saints being raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ, he says, “By grace ye are saved”, he is speaking about salvation from place, as well as from what is evil, from the world. The Leader of our salvation has been made perfect through sufferings. He is leading us into complete salvation, that is to say, the laying hold of the heavenly position and the taking a place in it, that you belong to it, that you are fixed in it, and that, as there, you apprehend Christ as [p. 294] made perfect, so that you might be there. It is no question of any moral effect, of course I need not say that; it is a question of a state that was needed so that the divine end should be reached, that God should have sons there, and such as should be led there, or brought there, through their intelligence. It is a process, dear brethren, and the Leader of it is made perfect through sufferings. That is, you see Him as He is as having gone through what we are going through, and nobody is really of any moral value who has had no experience of sufferings. It brings us into accord with Christ, it gives us colour, this suffering; it gives us distinction, it gives us stability and suitability in the fibre of our beings. It is no thought of what is conferred merely; it is what we are as brought through in this way so that we correspond to Christ. It “became” God, as if it were incumbent on God to fulfil His purposes in that way, to bring them through sufferings, so the Leader is made perfect through sufferings. Hence the assembly is formed, not only of persons who are sons as having the Spirit of adoption, but as suffering ones, as those who are marked in the fibre of their beings by suffering; they have gone through the thing. That is what God is looking for in the assembly, dear brethren, so moral correspondence is pursued, for “he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. You see, dear brethren, what God is aiming at is this position of sons being brought to glory with a Leader made perfect, and in the assembly this thought of suffering, corresponding with Christ, appears. The very fibre of our beings, as I say, is this, that we are brought through to correspond with our great Leader. It becomes God to do this, it was incumbent on Him from the very exigencies of the [p. 295] situation, the circumstances, that He should do this, and the point is to be in His hands so that whatever He passes us through is accepted, for it all has in mind correspondence with Christ. He was made “perfect ... through sufferings;” that is, He has reached it by a certain process that sets me there. The position of perfection is a state He has reached in this way according to the determination of God. It is no question of what He was personally, but “it became him ... in bringing many sons to glory, to make perfect the leader of their salvation through sufferings”. So that the led and the Leader, the One who brings us there, are of a kind; they are of a kind in suffering, dear brethren. “I will shew him”, the Lord said, with regard to Saul, “how much he must suffer”. We are of a kind in suffering, but then we are ‘one’ — whatever that may be. “Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”. And so, as I said, the service of God goes on.
Let us think of all this, dear brethren, so that we may be equal to things, not only taking on the terms in themselves, but to be in the things and thus answering in the end to the mind of God!