RELIEF FROM PRESSURE
[p. 273] RELIEF FROM PRESSURE
Before Christ came, God as the righteous Judge, was dealing in governmental mercy; after He came there was a Man here who could remove every pressure upon man; a time which the faithful before His day had looked for, as we see from the Psalms, and elsewhere in Scripture.
In the Old Testament relief came through simply trusting in God: He in His mercy relieved the faithful according as they turned to Him, as we see in Job.
Job was tried in the whole circle of affliction; in his family, in his circumstances, and in his health and evidently he was relieved in all, what he had lost was all restored.
Now in our Lord’s day it was still more marked, because a Man had come who had power to relieve man of every grievance, even death. But now that He is risen, He relieves all who seek Him by drawing them to His side, to a place which is His place, where there is no pressure. In the case of Job, he is relieved of the pressure in the place where the pressure is, and he had a great sense of the goodness of God - he waited on Him and was not disappointed; but the removal of the pressure only made him more contented with the place where the pressure was. Now with us in the present day we are removed from the place where the pressure is to Christ, so that it is His interest in us, sharing all He has with us, and our learning what His heart is towards us, that really relieves us. We are drawn away from the place where the pressure is, and He is endeared to us in the place where no pressure is. If your heart clings to this world you find this is where the pressure is, and you must look for relief in it as Job did - and you can speak of the wonderful effect of being simply cast on God in a day of trial, how it has moulded you, and how it has corrected you. “Before I was afflicted I went astray” (Psalm 119: 67)
- [p. 274] but when you turn to the Lord you are drawn away to Him, everything here remains as it was, but you find yourself introduced through Christ’s sympathy, into a new order of things where all is of God, and where there is no pressure, and your sorrows are all lost sight of. If you are in Job’s case you are looking for improvement in the place where you are. In present grace you are drawn away to Christ who is rejected from this world, and you taste of His love in the scene of His exaltation. In the one you are never detached from this world, in the other you are drawn away entirely from it without any regret. May you insist more on the fact that your heart being where Christ is, proves that He is your treasure; nothing in this world connects you with Him; Colossians 3: 1,2.
It is a great comfort to me that there is a Man in the glory, and that His Spirit is down here, connecting my soul with Him up there!
The whole work of the servant now is not to reform people, but to offer them salvation. The responsible man is not recognised before God now, he is gone in judgment in the cross, and everyone embracing Christ knows that He is clear before God from the responsible man.
Scarborough,