PROGRESS IN APPREHENSION OF CHRIST
[p. 80] PROGRESS IN APPREHENSION OF CHRIST
My object in selecting this chapter is to bring before you the various lights in which Christ is presented in it, and to shew that there is the idea of progress in us by the apprehension of those lights. This is marked through the chapter in the way in which the Lord speaks of Himself; and the apprehension of each step has a distinct effect upon us.
He presents Himself first as the Shepherd, having title to lead out the sheep; then as the door, connected with which is the idea of entrance; then as the Good Shepherd, giving confidence to the sheep; and lastly, as the One Shepherd, which brings in the thought of unity. The chapter begins with exit and ends with eternal life: these are the extreme points, and each step from the start to the finish is the result in the soul of a certain presentation of Christ, and of its apprehension. Each presentation has reference to the saints down here, and the last one manifestly brings in the thought of the gentile, “other sheep I have, which are not of this fold”. Finally Christ says that He gives His sheep eternal life. He, so to say, puts the sheep into the hand of the Father, and no one is able to pluck them out of His hand. “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand;” and His testimony closes with the remarkable statement, “I and my Father are one”. (Verses 29, 30.)
He is the Shepherd of the sheep, and in connection with Him as such there is a going out, that is, the sheep had to apprehend the direction in which He was leading. Though He speaks of leading out of the fold here, I do not think that this is looked at in this chapter simply as a consequence of His being rejected. In chapters 8 - 9 He is seen as rejected; but in chapter 10 He is seen as [p. 81] having come into the fold and shewing His sheep the direction in which He is leading. Christ did not come into the world to connect Himself with the world system as it was; there was no hope of recovery on the part of the world, though the Lord’s presence was a test, but He was in truth the beginning of a new world. He is the beginning, the true bread from heaven, and our path is to go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. The suffering without the gate in Hebrews 13: 12 - 14 is looked at as morally suitable. It was that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. Outside the gate was not His position, but He identified Himself with man’s moral position of distance that He might sanctify the people with His own blood; and the injunction connected with that is, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach”. We have to separate ourselves from ecclesiastical order after the flesh. In christianity around us things are set up on a certain established order, and we have to go outside that order unto Him, bearing His reproach. As Shepherd, Christ came into the fold in order to lead out of it. No one can make spiritual advance till he has accepted the fact that Christ has gone without the camp, and closed for ever that order of things. It is a great thing when one can say, “I am crucified with Christ”. I accept the reproach of the cross. The reproach is, that you are not good enough for earthly religion, and it is a great moment when God gives a saint grace to accept that, and to go outside the camp to Christ, bearing His reproach. We are called to follow Christ, and it is a solemn thing to realise that Christ has left the whole religious order of things in the world, and our path is to go outside unto Him. That is the first step. Christ is first seen as the Shepherd of the sheep.
The position He next takes is that of the Door. Now in the thought of the door there is an entering in. (Verse 9.) I understand Christ as the door, in view of the giving of the Spirit; where there is a lack of apprehension [p. 82] of the presence of the Spirit, and of the house of God, it indicates that there is little sense of Christ as the door. You must enter by the appointed way, by the door — the appointed way is by baptism, and you are baptised to Jesus Christ. The idea in connection with baptism is that you leave other associations to find a place in the house of God, the region of the Spirit.
In the Acts those converted by the apostles’ preaching accepted Christ as the door, and they came into the house of God. (Look at 1 Peter 3: 20, 22.) I understand the house of God to be a kind of moral correspondence to that which has taken place in heaven. Christ has gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him. There has been a celebration in heaven consequent on Christ’s being received there as man. It was “peace in heaven, and glory in the highest”. The acclamation on Christ’s entering Jerusalem pointed on to that moment, and the celebration in heaven is recorded here in Peter. Now how do we know that He is gone into heaven? By report. We could not know it otherwise, nor did the disciples, though they saw Him ascend; but that He is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to Him, is known by report. The Holy Spirit has come down to report this, and it is known in the house of God. There is thus a correspondence to heaven in the house of God. The festivity on earth is seen in the great supper of Luke 14. The answer of a good conscience in 1 Peter is through the accepting of the testimony of the resurrection; but the Holy Spirit has brought down the report of what has taken place in heaven, and in the supper we have the good of this.
Verse 10. Life more abundantly or very abundantly is, I imagine, life in the Spirit. We enter into the power of the Spirit through the door, and are saved, and go in and out and find pasture — salvation, liberty and food. All this is found in the power of the Spirit; but until we have taken the first step we cannot go further. Till we [p. 83] leave systematic religion, we do not understand what it is to be saved and to have liberty and to find pasture.
Christendom soon lost all sense of the presence of the Spirit because it refused the first condition, that is, the reproach of Christ. It is held now that He is in honour here. In losing the sense of the Spirit’s presence they have lost the true idea of the house of God. The Spirit has brought in the light of what has taken place in heaven, the celebration of righteousness. And hence grace is commensurate with glory! The greater the sense you have of the glory of the Lord, the more conscious you are of being a subject of grace. The second point is the Door, and by Christ, as that, you enter into all that is connected with the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Now the third point is the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep. Divine love expressed itself in Christ in death, and this love has had effect in the sheep. “The love of Christ constraineth us ... that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them, and rose again”. These verses illustrate the effect of what we get here in John 10: 11 - 14. “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep”. And again, “I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine”, “as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep”. We have in this the strongest expression of love; but where is love going to find satisfaction? In those who have accepted the testimony of that love; in these the love of Christ has had effect. The position of the world has been greatly changed by the testimony of the love of God. Christ’s death was the testimony of divine love, and the testimony of it has made two classes of men in the world, one of which is particularly obnoxious to God, that is, the class that rejects Christ. On the other hand, there is a class composed of those who have accepted the testimony of the love of God, and in them love has found its satisfaction. Christ knows [p. 84] His sheep and is known of His sheep, there is the reciprocity of affection. He loved them, and they love Him, and they live unto Him who died for them and rose again. As the Good Shepherd, Christ has given His life for the sheep, and it is His death that affects the soul, and the soul answers to it; and this is what is set forth in the Lord’s supper, for His death has expressed His love. Our response to the love of Christ is when we have apprehended Him as the Good Shepherd, and the knowledge that subsists is that of reciprocal affection. The apprehension of the love of Christ, as expressed in His death has a very profound effect on the soul. Many of us are but poorly prepared to part with country, friends and religion for the love of Christ, and yet He will not be content with less than the supreme place in the affections of His people. The character of love into which we are brought is wonderful. It is not exactly as the Shepherd, nor as the door, but as the Good Shepherd that He has given His life for the sheep; the soul has come by divine teaching into the apprehension of the love which was expressed in His death. Jesus says in verse 15, “I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd”.
Now this brings in another point, namely, that of unity, and the secret of this lies in the apprehension of the one Shepherd. We are exhorted to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace; but in order to do this we need to leave human order. The Lord attached great importance to unity, and was going to send another Comforter to bring it about. You cannot get the unity of the Spirit unless by leaving human order. In recognising Christ as one Shepherd and His sheep as one flock you come into the unity of the Spirit, and the obligation to keep the unity of the Spirit is recognised. The idea that the one flock was to be hidden in a great mass of profession was never in the mind of God. The Lord’s prayer is, “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me”. The unity of the saints was the testimony to the world that the Father sent the Son. The one flock, one Shepherd, in John, answers to the thought of the one Head, one body, in Paul. Every one should be prepared to accept the obligation to unity, which brings us to the true idea of the assembly. How we keep the unity of the Spirit is by practically discountenancing everything that is a denial of that unity.
We come to a further point in verses 27 - 30. Christ is going to lead His sheep, not to heaven, but to the land of promise. He says, “I give unto” My sheep “eternal life; and they shall never perish”. Eternal life is found in the land of promise, that is, in conscious association with Christ Himself. He is it, and you are risen and quickened with Him. And you will never perish, that is, never apostatise, for you are in the hand both of the Father and of the Son, and this is emphasized by the statement, “I and my Father are one”. Christ leads His sheep into eternal life, that is, into the consciousness that they are in Him outside the wilderness and all that is connected with the individual path, and are secure in the hand of the Father, and in His own hand. “We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we might know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ”. “He is the true God, and eternal life”. He brings us into the circle of which He is the centre, in the land of promise.
There is in the various presentations which Christ makes of Himself in this chapter, a progress, and we have to apprehend Christ in increasing light. He presents Himself in many lights to us and we apprehend Him as He is pleased to present Himself; and as each is entered into by the soul, it is prepared for the next, for there is advance in each step. And it is a curious fact that in this chapter the Lord was really speaking to His enemies,
[p. 86] but shewing the course which divine grace was taking in the world.
The Lord give us to increase in our knowledge and apprehension of Himself in all these various presentations which He has been pleased to bring before us.