THE DIVINE ECONOMY
[p. 298] THE DIVINE ECONOMY
My object in reading these scriptures is to speak about what, for want of a better word, I might call the present divine economy. I wish to speak of it from John’s point of view and I would say first of all it is an economy of love. Whatever else marks it, and much marks it as I hope to show, it is the outcome of love; all other attributes, qualities in the Deity or in Christ viewed mediatorially are subservient to and attendant upon love; so we have it formally stated in this verse of chapter 3, “the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”. This brief verse sets out the economy, as I call it, and I would suggest that in the selection of Him who was to administer and make all the divine thoughts effective, it is stated that this Person is the Object of the Father’s love: “the Father loveth the Son”. It is spoken within the period of christianity, within the period of Christ’s exaltation to heaven, His present session there and it alludes to the present time, the period of this dispensation. This gospel reiterates this very thought in other connections besides that of administration.
In chapter 5 the Lord says, “the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth”, and again in chapter 10 He says, “I lay down my life for the sheep”, and again, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again”. There is a motive given for love in the action of Christ, and again He says, “Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world”, linking these remarks with the Deity in its absoluteness — before the foundation of the world this love existed. It is perhaps the most tangible link, as [p. 299] I might say, that we have with the Absolute, with what existed then, before we read of any creature, that is before the foundation of the world. So that the Lord had much in mind, as here on earth, this thought of His Father’s love for Him, and the Spirit of God takes the thought up and uses one who knew love to express it — that is John, who, as we are told, was in the bosom of Jesus at a certain time. He was used above all others to speak of this, and in view of the peculiar applicableness of John’s ministry, especially his gospel, to our times, the matter takes on a peculiar importance for us, for it implies that God has brought His people, at least some of them, back to the thought of love, not as men have it ordinarily but as originating in God. In truth love was not really known until the incarnation nor could we know it save through the death and resurrection and ascension of Christ and the coming of the Spirit, for John says, “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us”, so the application of the love of the Father for the Son to the administrative economy is to be well noted, first as regards its exercise in the Lord Himself and then as He exercises it, very largely mediately now through others down here, for in truth He intends to draw every one who believes on Him into it. He would have every one of His in this economy, not merely as receiving the benefits of it, but as passing them on for, as I hope to show, the living water which is given in chapter 4 for one’s own satisfaction is flowing out in chapter 7 for the satisfaction of others. That is, as we receive benefit we become administrators of the benefit — that is what I have in mind.
Chapter 4 is in principle the working out of the administration, that is, “The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand”. The first move is for relief in man or woman, relief in the way of satisfaction. This is what I hope to speak of,
[p. 300] satisfaction in man, and — I may add reverently — satisfaction in God, for there must be that thought. Chapter 4 has these two thoughts in mind, that what is given into the hand of Christ by the Father who loves the Son works out immediately in this sense a state of satisfaction, holy satisfaction in man, and as the result of that, satisfaction in God, for God is seen as seeking in this chapter, and the desire of the Father is to be satisfied. That enters into the economy, and before proceeding, as to chapter 4, I may remark on the several gospels as to the introduction of this thought of the Son, how the idea of the Father’s love came into view, for it is presented as coming into view rather than as barely asserted. There are two things in God’s declaration in this sense — what is asserted authoritatively on His part, and what is shown. These two things are seen frequently. We have, for instance, what the Spirit of God says in Hebrews quoting Jeremiah, not what he said but what the Spirit says, bringing Jeremiah down to the present time, what he says as to the new covenant. The Holy Spirit, we are told, is a Witness to us, a present Witness as to that, and then we have also in that same epistle what the Spirit shows: “the Holy Spirit chewing this, that the way of the holy of holies has not yet been made manifest”, Hebrews 9: 8. He chewed it by what happened on the day of atonement, and so as regards this matter of the relations of divine Persons in the economy into which They have come, for that is what I am speaking of, the Holy Spirit presents it; He shows it in the early chapters of the four gospels. There are those who assume that God coming into this economy simply means that a veil is drawn aside and we are told that the economy was always there, which is a fallacy. The word ‘revelation’ is only used in regard of what divine Persons disclose to persons. What is used as to the economy, as to the declaration of God, is the word ‘declaration’, that is the bringing out of God in a Person already incarnate; that is the idea, not the removal of a veil to enable one to look in and see a Person there, but one of the Persons becoming Man and bringing the Others out in His Person and in His testimony, that is what is meant.
“No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1: 18) — not He ‘was’ but He “is” — it is the present time. And One in the place of love has accomplished that great service to bring God out, to declare Him here generally, not specially to anyone, it is the great general thought of the declaration of God; that is how John presents the truth. In Matthew it is confirmed. Matthew tells us what happened on the banks of the Jordan, each of the other three evangelists gives us a certain view of the event. It was a wonderful day at the Jordan; there was no day like that in all the eventful days of John’s ministry at the Jordan. Matthew tells us that the heavens were opened, that Jesus saw them, and a voice said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, Matthew 3: 17. He is owned as the beloved Son. And so Mark and Luke. Luke presents Him to us as praying when this happened. “Jesus having been baptised and praying ... the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove upon him; and a voice came out of heaven, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, Luke 3:21, 22. Simultaneously with that the Spirit is seen descending like a dove upon Jesus. The economy in the Persons is thus brought into view, that is the Father’s voice is heard although the Father’s name is not mentioned, the voice is enough, here is distinct articulation too “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight” — and the Spirit coming down and abiding upon Him, as John states, in the form of a dove.
[p. 302] So that the records, as I may say, show the facts, show the great economy that had come into view, and then John the baptist in his own way says that he had been apprised of this matter beforehand. The others say nothing about what John the baptist saw. John’s gospel has in mind an idea of a witness as if to show how the great officials of Christendom have failed in this.
I want to bring forward at the outset an ideal witness, the baptist; distinct honour is paid to him, and certain facts are adduced that are not mentioned elsewhere. John the evangelist says of Christ as having become flesh — “we have contemplated his glory” — that is the ‘we’ of authority, and John makes much of his own testimony later. “We know”, he says elsewhere, “that his witness is true” (chapter 21: 24), but here it is not his own individual witness but “we” meaning the authority that entered into the collective testimony of those included in that “we”; and immediately he says, “John bears witness of him, and he has cried saying”; he brings in John the baptist immediately as witnessing about Jesus and saying, “He was before me”. What a model for us as saints in serving in any way, the readiness to recognise superiority in another! John was ready to do that. He cried the thing as if he was urgent that nobody should assume that he was on an equality with Jesus. No one is on an equality with Jesus. John says, “A man ... who takes a place before me, because he was before me”. And He was, for a good reason. Personally He is God and antedates John the baptist eternally. A good reason why He was preferred before him, because He was before him. And then he says much more than I can dwell on now, but among other things he said, “He who sent me to baptise with water, he said to me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and abiding on him, he it is who baptises with the Holy Spirit”. That enters into the administration that I am seeking to bring before you, that is to say, John the baptist is apprised beforehand of the coming of Jesus. He was worthy of it; as unborn he is moved by the voice of Mary the mother of Jesus. He is an outstanding man as a witness. How worthy he is of this honour, to be apprised beforehand that among all the repentant Jews that were baptised, when he saw One coming and the Spirit descending as a dove and remaining upon Him he was to understand that He was the baptiser, not with water, but with the Spirit — a great thought. Therefore when John sees Him coming he says, ‘There He is’. It says, “he sees Jesus coming to him, and says, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”. How initiated he was, how intelligent as to the position; and then he tells us how he had been apprised divinely of Jesus, and then he adds, “I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God”. He failed in no way according to this gospel, and disappears in the third chapter, as recognising Jesus as having come from heaven, and that He must increase — that He must increase and even the great John himself must decrease.
That is how the truth of the economy is set before us in the gospel of John, and then following on that we have what I have already remarked, that the apostle John, the writer, says, “We have contemplated his glory”, that is, what I want you to notice is how the thing came into view and that they gave an account of what they saw. Would that we were all so alert as to receiving an impression by our spiritual eyes and our spiritual ears, and that on receiving such an impression we would be able to name it! That is one of the most important things in spiritual education, receiving an impression and putting a name on it, and that is what is done here. John says, “We have contemplated his glory, a [p. 304] glory as of an only-begotten with a father” — that is a simile, it is not ‘the Father’, it is “a father” — it is a description of what they saw, and brings out the importance of God coming in, taking the name of Father, and Christ taking the name of Son; it is a relation already understood among men. It was not a new relation. It was new that the Deity should come into it, but it was already known, and those who contemplated what was there before them were able to name it and describe it as in this figure — it is a simile — “an only one”, “an only-begotten with a father”. From the earliest days of humanity the idea of an only-begotten existed. There was Cain; he was a murderer, alas! but he had that place. The ‘first’ had to be taken away to make room for the ‘second’. Then we have Isaac, a most apt illustration; “Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest”. That was understood, and the apostles alluded to such a thing as that and they said, describing what they saw in Jesus become incarnate, that His glory was like the glory of an only-begotten with a father. That is what they saw; of course we translate it now and say what they saw was a fact, that Christ is God’s Son and known to be that, and the radiation of glory between them is understood, for that is the idea. What a thought it is! The Father, the Lord said expressly, is seen by no one. He remains in the Deity which the Lord describes here in chapter 4. God is a spirit; He remains in that way in the Deity in absoluteness, as regards that, as regards the substance, the essence as we may rightly say, but His voice is heard from heaven several times in this gospel, and in the other gospels, too. As I said before, the voice is to be taken for the Person; the voice is, as it were, a tangible thing, that is it affects the ear with its beautiful words: “This is my beloved Son”. “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”.
[p. 305] That is the Father; and there were those at the banks of the Jordan who could take this in. There was a radiation of affection; the heavens were opened, and there it was the voice came out, and it was heard. “This is” was for them; but “Thou art” was for Jesus Himself. These words conveyed the Father at that time, conveyed Him in what He was thinking in regard of that Man who had just been baptised and was praying, what He thought of Him. And then the Spirit comes into view especially in John’s gospel as a dove. You can see the whole thought of the figure of the dove descending, and John the baptist with his anointed eye looking for that of which he had already been told.
Perhaps no one who was expecting anything ever looked more. We should learn to look for promised things, John looked for this event — no event could be compared with it — the dove coming down, the Holy Spirit descending in that form. It was a whole thought, a substantial thought, not that the Holy Spirit is a dove — far otherwise — but it is a symbol well understood to the spiritual from Noah’s time. There it was, and John saw it, but God saw the descent as it came down and there it rested on that Man. It was God — it was no less, beloved friends. The Spirit was not given by measure to Him. The Spirit came in totally, as I may say, as the Lord says later, “He abides with you”, John 14: 17. He was there, the fulness of the Spirit had come in and was there in that Man. Not now in the temple as of old, the shekinah had come and found a permanent resting place in a Man here upon earth. What a Man What antecedents! It requires this wonderful gospel to impress us with who was there, as the Lord says to the woman, “Who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink”. He is there of whom it is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... . All things received [p. 306] being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being”, John 1: 1 - 3. He was God, the Word was God, and the Word became flesh, we are told, and dwelt among us — the same Person unchanged and unchangeable.
You cannot change the Person of Jesus. “Before Abraham was, I am”, (John 8: 58), He says later speaking to the Jews in the temple, speaking as a Man here, personally, He was there. He says moreover, “Abraham exulted in that he should see my day”. That refers to the incarnation. When He says, “Before Abraham was, I am” that was His deity and His part in the Deity — an equal part with other divine Persons, but when He says, “Abraham exulted in that he should see my day”, that is His humanity; and Abraham saw it and was glad to see it, I believe, in Isaac, in figure when Isaac was weaned. He had the whole way in the house. As the Lord intimated, the son is in the house for ever, that is what Abraham had in mind, so that you see, beloved, what a position we have in this chapter.
It is a unique chapter, glistening, luminous with titles of Jesus. Let us study it as we can, it is luminous with the titles of Jesus as Man here, also beginning as I said, with Him in the deity of His absoluteness. He was the very Creator of all things Himself, the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Now here He is a lowly Man coming up out of the Jordan and looking up in prayer and the heavens are opened to Him, and the Spirit descends, the voice comes.
So that the Trinity comes into view, and John the evangelist says, “We have contemplated his glory”.
Whether they saw what took place on the banks of the Jordan I cannot say — I do not think they did, but John the baptist was there, God was there, and what was there was in principle a glory as of an only one with a father; there was not another.
“Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”; there was not another. The apostles doubtless saw much more of it, and as I said, are able to name what they saw. Let us learn to do this, to name the impressions God graciously gives us. They name it, as the glory as of an only-begotten with a father, that is what they saw and contemplated.
They stood, as it were, to admire it. No doubt they were worshipful in seeing the various ways in which they were permitted to take account of the Lord Jesus in manhood here as He spoke to God and God to Him.
Well now, I come to my second scripture. I could say more about John on the same lines, but I want now for a moment to show how in this administrative position the Son has all things in His hand as the loved one. “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, John 3: 35. All things in His hand — note that. In that position, chapter 4 opens up how it operates, and it is for each of us to see how it is operating in him, because that is the intent of it. So this woman comes into view. It is no accident of course, but designed of God, a most unlikely case for divine operation from the human point of view, but from the divine point of view a most suitable example, one, you might say, of the worst types of humanity; God would take up such to show what He can do.
The Lord would show how this administrative economy into which He has come is equal to all this. Would we care at one of our care meetings to have one like this to consider for fellowship? What thoughts would arise about those five husbands and this one she had now! But John does not wait to solve that now. It is not a question of fellowship here; that is cared for elsewhere; the point is that the economy is equal to setting a person up, bad as she is, a person like this, before God in satisfaction spiritually, that is the idea, such a one as this. She [p. 308] is full of questions, of course, as you might understand, as we all are in facing divine things, just full of questions apparently unanswerable, but there are no human questions unanswerable in view of this great economy. I want to say a little first as to these five husbands, how they represent the endeavour to legalise sin, that is what is meant. The world is full of this sort of thing. Sin is conceived and entered into and practised and then there is the endeavour to legalise it with time, but you cannot do it before God. You may do it before a court of justice and call it the divorce court, which is intended largely to legalise sin. I do not mean to say that the court has that intent, but that is what the court is forced to, that is, human government is forced to come down to this. They have no means of maintaining the divine standard at all. We are thankful for any little standard of righteousnesses they have, but they have no means of maintaining divine righteousness, hence the existence of the divorce courts, and the world is full of them and the courts too full to meet cases, and the whole intent is to legalise sin.
That is what she has in mind, but the Lord knew all about her and she wanted to get the living water. That is natural, she did not wish to draw again from this well only. The Lord says, “Go, call thy husband”. That is a call to anyone who has a husband or a wife not walking in truth. “Go, call thy husband”, He says. That brought out the whole story.
“I have not a husband”, she says. She was living in sin. It was not legal, she could no longer hide it by legal process. It does not say the husbands had died; the idea is she covered her guilt by legal form, by the word ‘husband’. The Lord says, ‘The whole thing is exposed; the one you have does not even bear that name’. And we may be sure in spite of man’s skill in the divorce court the whole thing is exposed. God is not letting men off the sense of their sin, it [p. 309] comes home to them in one way or another. And then she says to the Lord, “I see that thou art a prophet”. How often it happens we are exposed just in this way. She turned the conversation by the use of the word ‘prophet’ to the religious side of the matter. How often people do that in their guilt, turn the thing over to the religious side, as if they had something to do with religion. She had the barefacedness to talk about religion, about worship, with such a history behind her, but she says, “I see”; a work was going on. The light was shining, the true light, as John says earlier, “the true light was that which, coming into the world, lightens every man”, John 1: 9. It was having its effect upon her, thank God! so she uses the word ‘prophet’. And then she talks about worship, the Samaritans, the Jews, as people do in this hazy sort of way, and the Lord in His wonderful grace looking out on the history of christendom in the inspired record of that event that myriads of souls have profited by, speaks about God. He says, “God is a spirit”. Think of that, dear brethren, that He can say that to such a one. Who can deny that the light is having its effect? There is some correspondence now between what He was saying and what was current in her soul, however little there was. “God is a spirit”. The idea had seized her. The operation of God has taken effect undoubtedly; the work of God is simultaneous, so there was correspondence between what the Lord was saying and what was current in her soul. She could not give an account, could not name it, but there it was. He says, “God is a spirit”. We are on other ground — no question now of the economy, but of what God is, and He says “they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”, and then in chapter 5, “an hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God”. That is a great change is coming over the position, ‘everything is in My hands’, He would say, ‘and I am going to bring about a state of things where there will be worship. I will meet man’s need — I am doing it — I am satisfying him spiritually, setting him up in eternal life, and inaugurating a great system of worship’.
You see the magnitude of the position here, “God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”. He says, “the Father seeks such as his worshippers”. And that is why I brought in the thought of divine satisfaction, the economy implies man’s satisfaction by the Spirit and eternal life, for that is what is in mind here, and it implies that God will be satisfied in a system of worship set up in accord with His nature, in accord with what He is as a Spirit. Jesus is the great Inaugurator of this system of worship, “the minister of the holy places” as we are told “and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man”, Hebrews 8: 2. And what is happening, beloved brethren, since Pentecost right down to, and particularly in these last days, is some little satisfaction produced for the heart of God, that He is worshipped by worshippers such as He is seeking, for notice — it is not the worship that is sought but the worshippers, the persons. Jesus intends to bring in such persons as that; they are in the economy. He has the means of doing it, and is doing it, bringing in those who worship God in spirit and truth.
That sets aside Jerusalem, Samaria, Rome, Canterbury, and all else man has set up here in relation to the worship of God. It is all set aside as by a stroke of the pen, of no avail at all in the service of God. Service is according to what God is by the Spirit and Jesus brings in the worshippers Himself — men after His own order, satisfied as receiving the living water which springs up into everlasting life, so that they worship God and satisfy the heart of God. The tabernacle [p. 311] and temple are types of all this. The tabernacle represents us, the sons, the worshippers as doing the will of God, each functioning in his place; and the temple the heavenly dignity of the saints. God is satisfied and He fills the whole scene, as if to say, ‘I want all this’ (see Exodus 40: 34, 35, and 2 Chronicles 5: 13, 14). He fills the whole scene with the glory; He takes possession of it. He is satisfied with what Jesus brings in. I want to add one word about the woman and her part so far as it went in the Lord’s service to her. She discerned Him to be a Prophet, and the Christ, and moreover she left her waterpot and went to the city, as if she understood what He said about the living water. She is a learner, she is coming into things gradually, and surely, and as coming into them she is influencing others. The Lord intends that not only should we benefit by the economy but become part of it. She did; she became a vessel of living water in principle, and went her way to the city to the men. They have no longer influence over her — she has over them, for God, and she says, “Come see a man”. She has one Man now, not five or six, only one Man now. Paul says, “I have espoused you unto one man” — that is Christ. She has Christ; Christ is in her. “If Christ be in you, the body is dead on account of sin; but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”, Romans 8: 10. She was full of Christ and she influenced others to come to Christ. She was part of the economy in that sense — a vessel set up, and the vessels are according to Christ as in the economy, so now she influences the men and they come to Christ.
May God bless these thoughts to us.