CHRIST AS GOD'S COVENANT
CHRIST AS GOD’S COVENANT
Isaiah 49: 1 - 9, Luke 7:20-30; Luke 7:36-50; Luke 10: 38
I have read these verses as I want to say a word about covenant, not exactly the new covenant, but covenant in the principle of it as seen in Scripture In Hebrews the new covenant is referred to, which God will make with the house of Israel, and that covenant was not to be according to the first one, because it says they did not continue in it. It was made in the day when He “took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt”, Hebrews 8: 9. He had in that way caused them to realise the touch of deliverance, He had taken them by the hand, but He had also borne them on eagles’ wings. They were held in Egypt; God had seen the affliction of His people, He had heard their cry, so He took them by the hand to lead them out. Having brought them out, He speaks of having borne them on eagles’ wings, which involves more than leading. In eagles’ wings we get power and swiftness. So He says, “I bare you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto myself”, Exodus 19: 4. He then proposes to enter into covenant with them. The reason He brings in the new covenant later is because they did not continue in the first one. His thought was they should be a people to Himself, a peculiar treasure to Him, and that He should be their God, but they continued not in His covenant, so that He said, I must constitute a new one. The old was not continued in, so He must bring in a new one.
Now I want to show how God set about bringing to pass what was in His heart. We get more than once, in the prophet Isaiah, that God intended to set Christ for a covenant to His people. It is in this manner that God has made His mind known to us in Christianity, for in the Son of God are not [p. 214] only millennial blessings, but the blessings that are peculiar to Christianity. It does not say, that Christ will be a new covenant to the people, but a covenant; as if God would say, that there was no other way by which He could make fully known what was in His heart and mind. Saying these things through the prophets, or writing them on stones or parchment, suffices not. The Son of God must come, so that, as come, God has the means of making known His will, His word, or mind, and His heart.
Now Christ makes known the will of God, that is part of the truth that we ought always to have before us. There is the will of God, the mind of God, and the heart of God, and they all had to be made known. God had His will, we must always bear that in mind; He changes not. What He was, He is, and ever shall be. For instance, He commanded and it was done, that is His will. Then we are told, that “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed” (not by the will, but) “by the word of God”, Hebrews 11: 3. His skill is involved in His word. When the foundations of the earth were laid, it is said that wisdom was there; Proverbs 8: 29. The foundations suggest not only the will of God, but the skill of God; they suggest architecture; wisdom was there, the mind of God was active in the formation of things. All the ornamentations and the regulations that the world suggests to us, speak, not only of the will of God, but of the word of God. Peter says, “By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water”. He says also that it is “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment”, (2 Peter 3: 5, 7)by the same word. All the mind of God is now perfectly expressed, for Christ being come involves this. He brought into the world the principle of the will of God, so that, having become Man, one of the first lessons He taught the disciples was that God’s will must be done on earth.
[p. 215] They were to pray for that, a prayer we should all remember.
The Lord is said to be the Word of God, He delighted in the will of God, but He was the Word of God. The name that will be written on His thigh, when He comes out as the divine Deliverer in the future, is the Word of God. Everything then will be perfectly arranged according to the thoughts of God; the nations will be grouped under Christ according to the Word of God. His name is called the Word of God. Then there is the heart of God. Who can tell out what is in the heart of God but the Son? It is not only God saying, “I love”. In Deuteronomy 33: 3, Moses says, “Yea, he loved the people”. The giving of the law had nothing but love behind it, for God did love the people, but saying that, was not proving it. It required that the Son -should become man for the expression of the love. “Hereby we have known love”, 1 John 3: 16. How did the love come to light? By the Lord Jesus Christ giving Himself. He “laid down his life for us”. If you read John’s epistles you will conclude that love was never known before, so we can understand what that word signifies, “I have set thee for a covenant of the people”. He was One who did not only speak of the love, but who was it. He expressed it, He testified to it. So that we have presented in the Son all that God is for man, and I have read the passage in Luke, that you may see how all that God is, is brought near to man, because it was all there, in Simon’s house, in Christ.
Now I want to point out, how that man either shuts the door of his heart to it, or opens it. It is available to all; both are seen in Luke. The prophet Malachi said in chapter 3, “And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in”. John the baptist was to come and announce the way [p. 216] of the Lord, and then the Lord Himself would suddenly come to His temple. Christ having become Man to be a covenant on the part of God, all that God is is brought near to man. Christ was anointed by the Spirit; He went about doing good; it was all brought near to man, whatever his position circumstances, or standing might be. Now the question was, Who would open or shut his heart to it? We read that the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves. All that God had counselled and presented to them they rejected or rendered null, as to themselves. How did they do it? By refusing to be baptised of John. That was how they did it. The publicans and harlots accepted it. How did they do it? By submitting to the baptism of John. The baptism of John involved what was brought near to man. It was brought as near to the Pharisees and lawyers as to the publicans and harlots, for God is no respecter of persons; it was available to all, but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God; and the others, although having no religious place in the world, accepted what was presented to them.
Now the paragraph in which this is stated ends with the words, “Wisdom is justified of all her children”, Luke 7: 35. This really marks Christianity. Christianity is composed historically of wisdom’s children, indeed there is no one in the assembly, strictly, but wisdom’s children. The position is this, that they justify wisdom The publicans and the harlots justified wisdom. We are accustomed to speak of God justifying us, and that is quite right, of course, but here we have the idea of God being justified by us. God is justified in those who bow to His rights in Christ, who accept His judgment as testified in the death of His Son, by truly accepting baptism. This was seen at the beginning, as we learn from the Acts. There was obedience from the [p. 217] heart, as baptism was accepted by those who believed. God’s proposal to man involves obedience, that I surrender my will for God’s will; otherwise, how can I justify God? How important it is that God should be justified! It is not that we should set about to do it in a formal way; He is justified by those who accept His proposal in Christ, and this is evidenced publicly by the acceptance of baptism. Romans 6 teaches consistency of walk with the position you have taken up in baptism.
I want to show you in the following part of the chapter, and in Mary, how one person comes into the enjoyment and good of the benefits, while another, who has the same opportunity, refuses it. In these two chapters, Luke 7 and 10, the Lord enters into two houses, the one the house of a Pharisee, the other the house of Martha. I want to show how, in the first house, all I have been speaking about was presented. Think of the Lord, in His grace, accepting the invitation of a Pharisee! He knew perfectly what was in that man’s heart, but He accepted his invitation, as if to say to him, Now is your opportunity. All that was of God, the counsels of God, the will of God, the mind of God, and the love of God, was there in Christ. What an opportunity for Simon! Is he equal to it? The woman saw it; overthrew the barriers that necessarily existed to her entering that house, and she finds herself at Christ’s feet, the feet of that blessed Man. She availed herself of what was there for her. He was a covenant set there for the people. God brought Him there. He, in obedience, as God’s servant, took that place. God had set Him there, and she availed herself of what was there. Just as God set the sun in the heavens, and every intelligent person looks up and gives God thanks for it. The Lord, indeed, refers to this. Such is God’s beneficence; He set the sun there; He made the stars also.
[p. 218] Now intelligent men look up and give God thanks, they open their windows to let in the light, and expand their lungs to draw in the air. So also God has set this blessed Man, who took the place of a servant, not in the heavens yet, but in the house of this Pharisee. He did not come like John the baptist, who lived in the wilderness, He came eating and drinking, the Friend of publicans and sinners. He had taken the place of a servant, and God had set Him there. Now this woman discerned His availability, and, in spite of all the existing barriers, she showed that, so far as she was concerned, she was not only prepared to benefit by all that was presented, but that she loved the Person in whom it came to her, so she washes His feet. She washes the feet of One who carried all that was in the heart of God to her. What a testimony! The Lord calls attention to the contrast between the Pharisee and the woman. “She loved much”. He justified her; what she did justified God, hence the Lord justified her and sent her away in peace. God’s grace was all there for both of them, for the Lord said, “When they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both”. That was His attitude of mind. His attitude of mind towards Simon was the same as towards the woman, but she availed herself of what was there, and she loved. She responded to the covenant of God, she availed herself of it. I am not speaking of the new covenant, but the principle of covenant, that by which God makes known to us what is in His heart and mind. She was in the good of it, and she went away with the testimony that she loved much. How did she come to do that? John tells us: “We love him because he first loved us”, 1 John 4: 19. God had come forth in Christ, dealing with her sins; that was the principle of it; all her sins were forgiven, and as she was forgiven much, she loved much.
Now in Luke 10 the Lord is not in the house of a [p. 219] Pharisee, but in the house of Martha of Bethany, which we may regard as the house of a Christian. The Lord takes His place in such a house. Perhaps you are not accustomed to have the Lord in your house. In Acts the Lord opened the door of Lydia’s heart, and then she opened her house. She attended to the things spoken to her by Paul, who as the vessel of the testimony, represented to her the light that had come to her soul. The Lord had the key of her heart, but He did not take the key of her door; He left that with her. The use she made of it testified to the effect of the opening of her heart. Faith is testified to by works. James says, “Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works”. (James 2: 18) Lydia proved her faith by her works, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord”, she says, “come into my house, and abide there”. The Lord comes into Martha’s house.
“He entered into a certain village, and a certain woman, named Martha, received him into her house”. He does not ask for the use of her house. He asked for the use of Peter’s boat, and He takes the ass’s colt as a matter of right, but that is not the case here. The Lord allows us the privilege of holding our houses for the advancement of His interests. She received Him into her house, and now, as in the house, He is going to open up the mind of God. In principle this is what marks the assembly, for the Spirit of God is here, and “the Spirit speaketh expressly”, 1 Timothy 4. That speaking is in the house, there is teaching too, the word of God is there. I am persuaded that the Lord would not hold back anything from us in these last days. His thought is to unfold the whole mind of. God. Paul said to the Ephesians, “I have not shunned to declare unto you the counsel of God”, Acts 20: 27. He kept nothing back. In Corinth he could not say everything he wished to say, for they were as babes.
[p. 220] There was no want of ministry but there was a want of receptiveness; so Paul says, “I have fed you with milk”, 1 Corinthians 3: 2. He could not open out to them the things of God, because of their state. The Lord would open up to us all the mind and counsels of God; the question is, therefore, whether we are Marthas or Marys, What was in the mind of the Lord was as much for Martha as for Mary. He was there to open up the mind of God. Mary’s spirit was restful; she sat down at His feet and drank in what He said; Martha was cumbered about many things.
Who among us is not aware of the numbers of cares that fall on the housewife? we have to recognise this. Housewives have to be prayed for; but at that moment the Lord was there to express the mind of God, and when He is speaking, our wisdom is to listen; all else must subordinated. A great opportunity was given, therefore, in Martha’s house, but her service hindered her from embracing it. Let us not despise our opportunities. The mind of God is being disclosed, and it is to be known now by the presence of the Spirit in the house. The Lord was there as much for Martha as for Mary, but Mary saw and seized the opportunity, so she is found sitting at Jesus’ feet, and hearing His word. She “was listening to his word”, not asking questions. The mark of this country is, asking questions. Every country has its own peculiar traits, and the trait that marks each country, whatever it be, is to be contended against by the saints. Things must not be swallowed down whole; that would be like the swine in the types; the swine is an unclean feeder, it does not chew the cud. We have to prove all things, but it is well to listen to what is being said, as we read, “Swift to hear, slow to speak”, James 1: 19. And we have to take heed how we hear. What is said of Mary is, that she was listening to what the [p. 221] Lord was saying. What thoughts would come to her as she sat there! To begin to question at such a moment would be to waste the time; it would be to shut off the stream of holy light that flowed out from God through the precious lips of Jesus. She would catch every word that came out of His mouth. As the Lord said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God”, Matthew 4: 4. Not one must be missed. Mary was listening to what the Lord was saying, and what He was saying was just as available to Martha as to Mary, only Martha did not avail herself of the opportunity. Is it not so now? The people of God are restless, cumbered with much service, yet all this is available for them as presented in Christ.
The Holy Spirit, being here, makes known to us all that is in Christ. Now there ought to be an answer to that. It is inconceivable that God should have a people on earth, unless they submit themselves to what He presents. To refuse to submit is what the Pharisees and lawyers did; they rejected the counsel of God against themselves. Then there is not only the presentation of all that God is in Christ, but the reproduction of it in the people of God; not now the law of God written in our minds, but Christ written there; the greater includes the lesser. So Christ written on the heart is greater than the law written there. The Spirit is writing Christ in legible characters in the hearts of God’s people. The thought is, that there should be an answer in the assembly to what is presented in Christ. Christianity involves the correspondence in us of what is presented in Christ, and that is brought about by the writing of the Spirit of the living God. God’s mind and heart are presented to all, and available to all, but only those who accept it get the benefit of it. I commend the word to you, especially in regard to the writing or Christ in our hearts.
Pages 222 - 265 - “Genealogical Registry in a Day of Departure” Belfast, 1919 (Volume 41).