THE LOVE OF CHRIST
Exodus 21: 1-6; John 10: 7, 18; Ephesians 5: 25-27; Hebrews 2: 11, 12;
J.D.G. Love is mentioned in the first three scriptures read. In Exodus 21, Christ, in the type, gave all that love could give, coming in as a bondman as He did, rather than going out alone He was prepared to carry through the will of God, “I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free”. I thought in John 10 there is the Father’s love, “On this account the Father loves me”, in relation to His committal to go forward in the will of God, “because I lay down my life that I may take it again … I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”; it draws out the Father’s love for Him. There are great matters in the minds of divine Persons and the Father indicated to Him that the time would come to go forward. It involved for Him His death on the cross, but the taking of His life again had in mind the securing of the harvest from the death of Christ. In Ephesians, “even as the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”. He did not deliver Himself up at the end of it, He loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it. Christ’s love for the assembly expressed itself in the cross; it continues, it is a service that proceeds at the present time. Then I thought the culmination of it all is that the praise of God should be secured, that was in the Lord’s heart. I think we can see that it was in the Lord’s heart as coming out of death in Psalm 22 which is referred to in Hebrews 2 in the same context, “in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises”. I turned to Chronicles 25 because all that has been secured out of the death of Christ is there ready to function at the touch of the king with a view to the praise of God. That was the line that was running through my mind.
D.T.P. I am sure there is much for our hearts that would help us because we always need to be strengthened in our love. Love for the saints, expressed in Christ, does not think of itself. He is prepared for sacrifice but there is a great end in view out of it all. The fulness of that is something for divine grace.
J.D.G. That is right. The bondman, according to the scripture, has opportunity to go out free, “If he came in alone, he shall go out alone”, he has to go out alone. The Lord’s love comes out in it in type. It is an answer to all the commandments that were given previously. They are going to be filled out in this blessed Man to the satisfaction of the Master, the wife and the children. He considered for His God, “Thou hast prepared me a body”, Heb 10: 5. He came in and accepted that body, He was prepared to go through with the will of God, “I come … to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 7. Love was the essence of it, it was not an arbitrary thing. His affections as man for His God, His affections as man for His wife, what we speak of as the assembly, the Lord was prepared to undertake all that was necessary to secure it.
D.T.P. There is a wonderful sense of committal in it. How precious the Lord’s life was in the eye of heaven, yet there is a steadfastness of committal that could not turn away from it because what was to be secured was so great.
J.D.G. You wonder at it, but there it was in His mind; being a divine Person in manhood He knew all that was there, but what tremendous matters were to be secured out of this committal of one of the divine Persons coming into manhood taking a bondman’s form.
R.T. From the passage of the book (see Ps 40: 7) it seems as if He is expected to do this, not to go out alone?
J.D.G. I think it is anticipated that there would be an answer because love was there. The whole thing seems to spring from the fact that when the circumstances are come into, it is not only the carrying out of divine will, but love was there. I think the passage in Psalm 40 suggests that, it is an answer in love to the divine requirements. He came into the bondman’s form. Love existed all the time in that relationship. It is a wonderful thing at the highest level of it, “I love my master”, then “I love … my wife, and my children”. There is no suggestion of any diminishing in that; His quality of love would be the same.
J.P. Could you say something about the bondman saying, “distinctly”? The Lord says, “not my will but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42?
J.D.G. Yes, that would be included in it. In John 10 it is a commandment he has received from His Father. I suppose it characterised His life all the way through, but perhaps in coming down from the mount of transfiguration particularly. His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem would be one evidence of Him saying distinctly that He was committed to go there. Another scripture says, “he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”, Luke 9: 51. Then Gethsemane was a full expression of the Lord saying distinctly. It was not that the Lord was shrinking form the Father’s will; what He felt was what He was going forward to undertake, the gravity of it.
J.P. It was as a man He said that? He felt these things as a man.
J.D.G. It says, “he began to be sorrowful and deeply depressed”, Matt 26: 37. His love was there and there was no thought of turning back. The Lord was committed to go forward to the Father’s will. The essence of that was His love for His God; and then His love for His wife and His children – He could not have them apart from death.
T.D.B. Would there be deliberateness seen in the way the Lord was here? I was thinking of the word, “he must needs pass through Samaria” (John 4: 4), there was nothing haphazard as to the way He lived.
J.D.G. That would be right. His committal was absolute, it springs from love, “I will not go free”.
M.C. It says of Him, “thou hast prepared me a body... Lo, I come … to do, O God, thy will”, Heb 10: 5-7. I was thinking of the connection with the body and the bondman. It is very touching to think of the Lord taking up that position and having this capacity in love to fill it out.
J.D.G. “Hast prepared me a body”. He accepted that, it was a body in which He could express these things. The incarnation was necessary for the filling out of the divine counsels.
M.C. His love could have stopped at that, “I love my master”, but it encompasses the wife and the children.
J.D.G. Do you not think it magnifies what was to come into the death of Christ? “I love my master” was filled out. The work of propitiation was such that God was absolutely satisfied with Christ and His work. The work of substitution has laid a basis for the many to have relationship with Him and be brought into it. Then there is a vessel that in the type comes out of His death through the rib taken from his side which involves divine purpose. It had no past history. The Lord loved the assembly and He had to go through death to secure it.
R.G. Should there be some answer in response in our hearts to this? We can see it now. It says, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him”, Phil 2: 9. It says “distinctly”, God heard what He said and highly exalted Him. Do you think there should be then on our side, his wife and his children, who also hear, if we do hear, that word, “I love my master, my wife and my children”. If we hear that there would be an answer in response, do you think?
J.D.G. That is interesting – 1 Chronicles 25 was in my mind from that point of view. It is the answering response in the hearts of the instruments that are there and the personnel that are there in view of the praise of God. It springs from an appreciation of the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge.
R.G. They had been six years in His company but here was the acme of His love. What it must have done to them to hear Him say this. How He would be exalted in our souls; there would be a greater response there.
J.D.G. How He sought for them to understand that He would go up to Jerusalem to suffer and to die, He kept bringing it before His disciples. They seem to have had difficulty in understanding it, but finally they come into the appreciation of it, the love of the Christ, how far He was prepared to go, to suffer at the hands of the Jew and the Gentile.
R.T. Do you think the love that was displayed in the six years continues after it, “he shall be his bondman for ever”?
J.D.G. That is right. Mr Darby has a note on that in Luke’s synopsis (Vol 3: p259) – “coming up he will serve them” – he says bondmanship from that point of view goes right through into heaven, He will serve us and bring us into an appreciation of the Father’s love by serving us. Not bondmanship in subservient conditions or demeaning conditions, but then in conditions of glory, his bondmanship goes through there. They had been recipients of His bondmanship, He washed their feet to have part with Him in the Father’s house. What a touch to the service of the bondmanship of Christ (see John 13: 12). “I go to prepare you a place … that where I am ye also may be” (14: 2). The washing of the feet in John 13 has in mind part with Him in the Father’s realm. That is very dignified bondmanship. He refreshed them and washed them.
D.T.P. They did not know really what He was doing to them, but there it was, the Lord in grace and love for them carries out the service. They came into it later and He leaves it with us to do these things to one another.
J.D.G. That would bring us on to Ephesians 5. The nourishing and cherishing would be included in the continuation of that work of the washing of the feet. John 10 brings out, “On this account the Father loves me”, that is a special expression of the Father’s love for Christ as the One who loves His Master, waits on His directions. It is very remarkable in John’s gospel where the deity of Christ is prominent in many ways, who the Person was, yet it strikes you how He waits on the Father so many times – “On this account the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again”. That was looking forward to the door and the doorpost; his ear was bored through with an awl. He lays it down, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself”.
R.G. It is a very fine thought, “I lay it down”. The life that was perfect, worked out everything to God’s satisfaction perfectly, He laid that down and took it again, the same life in a different condition. You can understand why the Father loves Him. Now He has a Man in His presence who has carried out everything for His pleasure.
J.D.G. That is right, a life that was so pleasing to the Father, in flesh and blood condition; yet you see that the divine mind had other things before it. We are in the gain of it because it has been unfolded to us in the scriptures by revelation as to what has transpired through the death and resurrection and the ascension of Christ. Those who listened at that time would not fully understand that, so the disciples are grieved when He teaches them in later John that He was going away. He says to them that it is a benefit to you that I should go away. You can see how that is, but here he lays it down of the Father, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again”. There was another condition in which He was no longer straitened: He can still be of service to His own after that, indeed He is because we prove it at the present time. “On this account the Father loves me”, there is reciprocation and answer to “I love my master”.
R.T. It seems like an added reason for the Father loving Him? It says, “I know thou always lovest me”, but here, is there something that draws it out in a very special way?
J.D.G. Yes, it is because it is the answer to the Father’s desires that He should lay down His life that He may take it again, “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”. The answer to that commandment was that He would proceed and lay down His life. It brings in an added matter, it brings out how the Father took account of the detail of what worked out in the life of Christ till this moment came and He receives this commandment. He is joying in that blessed Man; He was going forward under regulation of the Father.
R.T. You would almost think that the Father sees divine purposes unfolding in those movements of Jesus.
J.D.G. I was thinking that, His ways are one thing, but His purposes and counsels are another. The time had come, the matter of the life of Jesus here below in flesh and blood condition had filled out all that the divine will required and now it was necessary to go forward. There were other matters in mind. As it says in the chapter 12, “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit” (vv 23,24). It was all in the divine mind, the Father’s mind, so that we should be able to proceed into what was out of Christ’s death, the challenge that came in through sin was to be fully answered, and there was a blessed Man going to be in the Father’s presence and not alone.
T.D.B. Would you say more about the expression, “I lay it down of myself”?
J.D.G. It is a very fine statement, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself”. There would be instruments that seem to be used, but we are in the secret of the matter here, “I lay it down of myself”. Do you not think that when it came to John 19, where He says, “It is finished” (v 30), that statement was uttered at the command of the Father, “It is finished”. I think of it as related to this scripture, “I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father”. When He said, “It is finished” that was in answer fully to the Father’s commandment.
D.T.P. Does it show something of the personal side of the Lord with His links with the Father in that this statement that He makes shows the complete acceptance of the Father’s will? He laid it down of Himself, and had His Father’s glory in mind in doing so? And clearing the ground for us too?
J.D.G. It is a very fine statement. From that point of view it was His own action in relation to the Father’s desires and His love for the Master. The other matters come into it too, “I love my wife, and my children”, that came out of His death, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself”.
W.C. Does Mr Darby’s note help us on the word “authority” – the right to act as well as the power? It is an interesting note that. He had the power to do it and the right to do it.
J.D.G. He exercises that right, “I lay it down of myself”. It should enter into our affections that He did it Himself, but the essence of it lay in His love.
R.G. This chapter is the break-point of John’s gospel, the change from what is individual to what is collective. Is that not involved in it? “That I may take it again”, there was a perfect life in the Lord Jesus here, perfectly pleasing to the Father, He lays it down, “that I may take it again”. What is coming to light in the rest of the book is what He takes again, that kind of life that will be seen in others who are like Himself in the other side of death, do you think?
J.D.G. Yes, “I sanctify myself for them” (John 17: 19), that is anticipative of His death. Ephesians touches on that fact, “that he might sanctify it”. It is the same thought that is in mind, He is now setting Himself apart for them. So, “Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it”, that was love that was extant before His death, “I love my master, my wife, and my children” to secure them He had to go through death, He loved them, then He delivered Himself up for the assembly, “that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word”. That continues.
M.C. Is there a difference in what has been said already and this remark, “has delivered himself up for it”? I was wondering what is involved in that statement in comparison to laying down His life of Himself.
J.D.G. As I understand it, He loved the assembly. You might say it was a divine concept that was there, but the Lord had a full appreciation of what it was going to be to Him, a counterpart. What was in my mind was that He delivered Himself up for it. There is the deep sleep in Genesis 2 and the bone was taken out of his side. It came to mind in giving thanks this morning, He showed them His hands and His side. From that point of view He delivered Himself up for it, to secure it, because it had to be secured only out of His death, it had to be derived from Himself. That must come through death. I think this side of it is that He delivered Himself up for it, the Adam side of the deep sleep. In John 20, “go to my brethren and say to them” (v 17); it was persons who had derived out of His death, the host that comes out of his death, and does not look at us as having a past history.
R.T. It is like the pearl, there was something there that was divine workmanship, and the Lord seeing that delivered Himself up to bring it into fresh conditions where it would be close to Himself?
J.D.G. Where He could have it for Himself – ‘out of His death has sprung’. “That I may take it again” is another condition and it is in that condition that the assembly can have part with Him.
D.T.P. We have all come out of the death of Christ and that is part of the joy of John 10, as you have been speaking of it, because it comes out there in what the Father’s joy would be in Him taking His life again, what is brought out of death, for His own satisfaction and for the Father’s joy too.
J.D.G. That comes in in chapter 1 of this book, “which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all” (vv 20-23). That is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory who does all these things. What delight He had in Christ out of death in bringing forward the assembly, just as Eve was brought forward to Adam, in type “given to be head over all things to the assembly”. He is not given to the assembly, it does not say, ‘put all things under His feet and gave Him to the assembly to be head over all things’, that is not right, it is not gift to the assembly; “given to be head over all things to the assembly”, that is the place in which she presides under Christ administratively, He is there in headship.
D.Sp. Could you help us further as to the thought of the wife and the children? The Lord’s love which was there as going into death continues? It speaks here of, “the washing of water by the word”. Is there something seen in the Lord’s love continually in the purifying effect of the children? Could you help between the distinction of the wife and the children in that setting?
J.D.G. I do not know that I could! Hebrews 2 refers to it, “Behold, I and the children which God has given me”. I think it is a quotation from Isaiah: it may be a reference to Israel.
J.P. I understood that the wife was the assembly and the children were Israel.
J.D.G. I think that is what we have understood, the wife is the assembly and the children are Israel.
R.T. It would even go wider than Israel, would it not? It is all the spoil that has been gathered up. The wife is the assembly, and the children, Israel, but may even go wider, it is the whole fruit of that movement of love and the universe to come will declare it.
J.D.G. That comes into Psalm 22, “A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done it” (vv 30,31). I think what you say is right. We want to see the width of Christ’s work. What you pointed out is that love continues, “I love my master, my wife, and my children”; there is no end to that.
D.Sp. What you are bringing out is very helpful because it shows that that love which was seen so beautifully at the cross in committing Himself to the Father’s will is still here, and the saints know and experience that love. It is a wonderful strengthening to the soul to know that same love. The Lord is on high, but His love is the same towards the saints at the present time.
J.D.G. When He presents the assembly to Himself glorious, His love will be there and it will continue into eternity, “the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge”. It will always be sustained. The fact, of course, is that eternity will be marked by love, it will be expressed fully in the economy that is there in the Father, the Son and the Spirit and in all the saints.
R.G. It is all the saints, you cannot restrict it. “I love my master” was upward, “I love my wife” is horizontal, equal, the assembly is on an equal footing for all eternity “my children”, is downward, to the individuals that compose the assembly and goes wider, “every tribe and tongue and nation”. The redemptive work of Christ downward reaches out to every soul, does it not?
J.D.G. Yes, I would go with that. The thought of children does not go through to eternity, we are using a figure of speech here. God’s love for every individual goes through to eternity, not exactly as children. His love for each individual goes through to eternity.
R.G. It is the same love that takes on a different character according to what the need is.
J.D.G. That is right because “in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word” shows that it is in a scene of contrariety, whereas, what He presents to Himself has, “no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things”. It has been said as to, (I do not wish to be misunderstood), “presenting the assembly to Himself”, only a divine Person could do that. We are not united to Christ in His deity, we are united to Christ in His Manhood, but the glory of the presentation involves His deity. He is able to do that.
M.C. The Lord’s infinite pleasure in presenting the assembly to Himself is an object for our affections, the love that has been expended upon it that has produced the perfect answer to Himself?
J.D.G. He presents it glorious, “having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless”. You wonder how it is done, but there it is, it will be a fact. The saints will be in bodies of glory then.
R.G. Man did not present woman to himself, God brought her to man; but in this section, the Lord presents her to Himself because of who He is.
J.D.G. That is right. In the meantime His love considers for it, “the washing of water by the word”, that takes place in our gatherings. It purifies us too, the action of the Spirit would be involved in that, it seems as if Christ is doing it, but the economy of the Spirit would be there that this ministry might be effectual in me and in you.
As to Hebrews 2, I thought we should not finish without an understanding that all that has been secured by the love of Christ for His master, His wife and His children is going to result in praises for His God, that the answer in the saints in fruitful results to all that has been secured would be the answer in recompense to all that has been done. That is why I read 1 Chronicles 25. The vessels there are instruments of music, everything is in order awaiting the touch from the king. Everything is in order as if all the orchestra is together here in Hebrews 2, the conductor is there in Christ. 1 Chronicles 25 gives you all the detail, and the work that comes out is all skilled, there is not one unskilled person in this vessel who is unable to respond in their place to the satisfaction and heart of God.
M.C. Could you say something about the expression, “are all of one”? It seems to be a very wonderful matter.
J.D.G. “For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”, I have always accepted that it is the same order of humanity.
M.C. I was impressed with the absolute perfection in what is secured here. It is fully compatible with Christ so that the answer can be a very rich one as a result.
J.D.G. I am glad you say that: there is no estrangement, there could not be any thought of estrangement. “He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”. It brings out the result that has been secured, “I lay down my life that I may take it again”. The answer in the saints is in full accord through that life that Christ has taken again.
R.G. Is this the grain of wheat falling into the ground? It is the same character of wheat that comes out of the ground.
J.D.G. That is right. The much fruit bears the character of the One who died and rose again. It is a very wide thought, “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. And again, I will trust in him. And again, Behold, I and the children which God has given me”. I suppose all that is out of the death of Christ must be in accord with Him.
R.G. The Authorised Version says, “A corn of wheat”, Mr Darby changes it to “the grain of wheat”; there was only one, “the grain of wheat”. That is the One you have been referring to in the first three scriptures, that character of Man, and out of His death, “he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one”. They are all the same.
J.D.G. In the body of glory sin will not attach to us, sin in the flesh will not attach to us. It does at the moment, but it is kept in its place by the power of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Chronicles 25, these men were related to what is under Christ, the harps and the lutes would be persons, and then “under the direction of the king. And the number of them, with their brethren that were instructed in the songs of Jehovah, all of them skilful, was two hundred and eighty-eight”. I cannot make anything of the number but just the fact that every one was skilful. All that has been secured out of Christ’s death He holds available for the praise of God.
R.T. Is that Ephesians 3, “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus” (v 21)?
J.D.G. That is right, “unto all generations of the age of ages. Amen”. According to the power that works in us; there is a response, an answer in response in the hearts of the saints.
R.T. Does what Chronicles brings out here bring out too the intelligence that marks the assembly, all was under instruction? There is wonderful order, the assembly as His counterpart is very intelligent as to what is needed and what is to be expressed?
J.D.G. Yes, we could have read more, it says also, “under the direction of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with the harp, to give thanks and to praise Jehovah” (v 3). The whole area is replete with life and living conditions, persons who are alive under the touch of a divine Person to respond to divine Persons. What we are attached to is real and living. The whole matter is living, “seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” is a thought of where life is, heavenly life. We touch that.
M.C. It is always fresh then because it is under the direction of the king, the leadership of Christ in the service of song is a very wonderful thing.
J.D.G. “All these were sons of Heman and the king’s seer in the words of God, to exalt his power” (v 5), it gives a view that the whole touch is under Christ, what a variety of personality that can respond. What a scene the eternal day will be, but we can touch it now, we should realise that the reality is there with us particularly in the service of song, but not only there.
R.T. It is a great combination, there is the direction of the king, but then it says, “all of them skilful”, as if there is almost a hidden secret, but very vital, link between the king and the responses of these persons, I would think spontaneously almost.
J.D.G. Every one of the saints, all of us here who are committed to the Lord, are helped by the Spirit to respond in the service of song, from the divine side we would regard it as skilful.
R.G. In chapter 25 there are not trumpets.
J.D.G. Please say more.
R.G. In another place it says, “the trumpeters and singers were as one” (2 Chron. 5: 13), but not here, cymbals, lutes and harps. There is the human voice that God has given and then there are the instruments of music that the skill of the Spirit can play on as we in our answering responses to all that Christ has done can be acceptable to God.
J.D.G. It would encourage us all to participate. From the divine side we have been formed to be skilful, the grace of God has operated in our souls under the touch of the Spirit and the Lord to respond, bringing out the work of God that has been formed in us by divine Persons.
A.W. It is wonderful that we all get a touch from this King if we are available to serve under His hands?
J.T. What an answer it will be for the heart of the Father, that all will be for His praise and for His glory.
J.D.G That is good. What He has done is to bring out in us what answers to His own heart. It is expressed in vessels in whom His work has taken place.
KIRKCALDY
13 March 2005
Key to initials
T.D. Beveridge; W. Clark; M. Cowan; R. Gardiner; J.D. Gray, Edinburgh; D.T. Pye; J. Pye; D. Spinks, Grangemouth; R. Taylor; J. Thompson; A. Wilson