THE DIFFERENCE OF BEING A GUEST WITH CHRIST AND BEING UNITED TO HIM
THE DIFFERENCE OF BEING A GUEST WITH CHRIST AND BEING UNITED TO HIM
What is the difference between one in the company of Christ and one who is united to Him? It is evident that the latter includes the former; but the former, as we see even in the case of John leaning on the bosom [p. 112] of Jesus, does not include the latter. If I sit under His shadow, I have great delight, and His fruit is sweet to my taste while I am there; but if this scene changes, I have no certain link with the happy scene which I have left. The sense of past enjoyment is not a link, it may be assured to me by the word, but I require to be there again in order to be conscious of my right to be there. Now if I am united to Christ I am secured in everything that I have enjoyed, whether I am in the scene of enjoyment or not. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6: 17). The sense of being united to Him by the Spirit comforts and sustains my heart in a much greater way than the double portion of Elijah’s spirit and his mantle cheered and helped Elisha when a lonely one in the wilderness.
No nearness of company could acquaint me with the wondrous unfoldings of the Spirit to me when I am in conscious union with Christ. How could any mere guest comprehend that word, “At that day ye shall know [be conscious] that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you”? (John 14: 20). No experience could surpass this; and it can, through the Spirit by whom it is made known, exist in any scene. No one without a divine nature could appreciate the perfectness of Christ, or enjoy His company, but it is evident that the enjoyment cannot be but where He is who affords it; and hence, however capable I may be of enjoying it, if I am not in the scene where He is, there can be no enjoyment; whereas, if I am united to Him by the Spirit, I am conscious of being in Him and He in me; and therefore, though not in the scene of enjoyment actually, yet I possess the One who makes the scene so enjoyable. I am not only a guest, but I am owner in Christ. A guest necessarily only enjoys while he is a guest. The owner is owner wherever he is.
The order as it appears to me is, first, a guest, and this we see (Revelation 3) is of a twofold character. Christ sups with me, enters into my circumstances, as He says to Zacchaeus, “Make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house” (Luke 19: 5). He first meets us in every variety of circumstance on our side, and next, we sup with Him. We pass into the circle of His things. We are emphatically His guests. We are conscious of untold benefits in His company. But the next thing is, and it is an immense advance, that we are united to Him; and the more we have gained by and appreciated His company, the more do we comprehend the vastness of the favour of union with Him; and it is consequent on union, abiding in Him, that we are disciples, and bring forth much fruit. The power of the absent Elijah is with Elisha though he be a lonely one down here. It is not that Elisha has been only a favoured guest, he has received of his spirit and the mantle that fell upon him, and he returns to the scene where Elijah is not, in all his power; fruitful and vigorous though the one who connects him with all the glory of God is no longer here. Thus the heir and owner possesses all that the guest enjoys, and he loses not the sense of possession, though he is not in the place of possession; but because he is in the spirit of the owner, he acts in the power and character of the owner, where his title is either unacknowledged or refused. There may be bright seasons of enjoyment to the guest, but there is no enjoyment when he is not a guest, if he be not consciously united to Christ, the source and owner of all, neither can there be true service as a disciple and friend to Him down here, where He is disowned and refused.