APPRECIATION OF THE PERSON OF CHRIST
D. J. Hutson
Revelation 1: 12–18; 2 Corinthians 5: 10, 14, 15; 1 Corinthians 4: 3–5; 2 Timothy 4: 6–8
There is no question that in these days peculiar attention is being drawn to the Person of Christ. We can be very thankful that the Holy Spirit is free to engage in that service of which the Lord Jesus could speak, “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14. We know from what Paul says in Ephesians 4 that one end in the ministry is that we might arrive at “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ephesians 4: 13). Hence, as the time for ministry draws to a close as the return of the Lord draws near, we can understand that the Holy Spirit would be bringing before us the glories of the Son of God. One feature of that glory is that the Father “has given all judgment to the Son; that all may honour the Son, even as they honour the Father”, John 5: 22, 23.
Perhaps a function of the Lord Jesus, the Son, that we do not speak much about, is that judgment has been
committed to Him. We sang in our hymn of the various ways in which we delight to think of Him, as Saviour, Shepherd, Friend, Prophet, Priest, King, and so on (see Hymn 54), but Judge is not mentioned. Maybe we have a certain fear as we think of it, but I just seek to show, from these scriptures, that it is a matter of great encouragement to us that judgment has been committed into the hands of the Son. There is nothing to be feared, but rather we may be encouraged by the fact that He is, as it says, “the righteous Judge” (2 Timothy 4: 8); and we can be restful as to many matters in the knowledge of this. Another reason, no doubt, why the glories of the Lord Jesus are so being brought before us at the present time is because of the relentless attacks of the enemy. We know that in Revelation it speaks of him (the enemy) coming down and having great rage because he knows that his time is short (Revelation 12: 12); and the same thing, in principle, applies at the present time, so that as the wonderful time in which we are draws to a close the enemy is relentless in his attacks, if possible, further to divide and scatter the saints of God. But the Spirit of the Lord would raise up a banner against him, and I believe the banner that He would raise would be the Person of our Lord Jesus, the great rallying point for all His saints at the present time, as always throughout this time in which we are.
Many of these features which we have referred to in the hymn will soon be concluded, hence the importance of the present time to come to know the Lord Jesus in these varied ways. We shall not need a Saviour in heaven, for there is nothing to be saved from there. The last act of His saviourhood, as we have sometimes been reminded, is when He comes as Saviour to change these bodies of humiliation into conformity to His body of glory (Philippians 3: 21).
Then we shall no longer need a Saviour, for we shall be brought into conformity with Him and be introduced into an order of things where salvation is no longer needed, where there is no adversary or ill event. Shepherding will no longer be needed as we need it now;
prophecy will be done away, and so on; and His position as Judge will also come to finality.
Sadly for unbelievers it will be at the great white throne and as He sits upon it the heavens and the earth will flee away from before His face. But in this wonderful time in which we are He is presented as Saviour, and it is for us not now to be in fear but to come to know Him as our Saviour. I trust everyone here is resting under the, shelter of the precious blood of Jesus.
Nothing can be taken for granted. Mr. Coates said that he had grave doubts as to the eternal security of many who were fellowship (‘Letters’, p.10). We have to take these words soberly, especially at a time when some have come into fellowship, you might say, without much exercise in earlier days. It is important for the young people to realise that they must have to do with the Lord Jesus for themselves at this time when He still can be known as Saviour in virtue of His finished work and His precious shed blood and His present place in glory where He is exalted, a Prince and a Saviour, able to save completely all who come unto God by Him (Hebrews 7: 25).
I felt it right, if we are to come to the knowledge of the Son of God, that we should look at this particular feature of having judgment given to Him. So I read of Paul and John as having to do with Him in this way. John writes in the light of the failure of the church publicly. He writes to the seven assemblies, and though in Smyrna and in Philadelphia there is nothing by way of reproof, yet even in them there is a word to the overcomer. I believe it is necessary to go through something of this experience which. John had in view of our being found here as overcomers. We can only be found as overcomers in these days, where there is so much failure in the public body, failure in which we must humbly admit we have had our part, as having the judgment of the Lord Jesus Himself, of the Son, in relation to what has come in, and that is what John is brought to here. But first of all we must come to it in ourselves. So as the Lord Jesus is presented, you notice
He is not named. John delights to bring in references to the Lord Jesus without naming Him, so near to Him was he that he would take it for granted, as it were, that we would know who he was speaking about, as earlier in the chapter where he says, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”
And so here He is the One that he speaks of, and he turned back to see the voice which spoke with him and he saw “seven golden lamps, and in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man, clothed with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle—his head and hair white like white wool, as snow”. Then it says, “his eyes as a flame of fire”, that is, His penetrating gaze into all that would come under His notice, and
“his feet like fine brass, as burning in a furnace”, so that wherever He walked there would be that element of judgment entering into it. There would be nothing indiscriminate in His movements, a test for ourselves, but there would be a keen sense of judgment in all His movements, “and his voice as the voice of many waters; and having in his right hand seven stars; and out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth; and his countenance as the sun shines in its power”. What an appearance it must have been to John, the one who leant on His breast and had a place in His bosom; what it must have been for him to see Him in this judicial garb. The effect upon him was that he fell at His feet as dead. How do we feel in His presence as such? Do we not have to take our true place at His feet as dead? There is nothing in us according to nature which would pass the scrutiny of the judgment of such an One. And yet He is here as the Son of man, or, as it says, “like the Son of man”. Mr. Darby’s note is interesting that in the New Testament that expression conveys more than in the Old Testament because we know the Person so designated. He is there as Man, for judgment has been given to Him as Man, although as to his Person, God over all, blessed for ever
(Romans 9: 5). But what a comfort it is to see that He is still the same as we have always known Him. What it must have meant to John to have His right hand laid upon him, to have that strengthening hand and these words from Him, “Fear not; I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead”. That is, ‘Everything which has made you feel like taking that place, I have met Myself, I have been there, I have been into the depths, I have removed all that would hinder you from being at perfect liberty in My presence, and the judgment has been borne for I have borne the judgment’.
How wonderful that is, that the One who is the Judge is the One who has met everything that has to be judged in us. He has met it in Himself, not only what we have done and what we are, but the man himself has been dealt with, that kind of man has been removed from before God’s sight in the death and burial of Jesus. That is, the One to whom judgment has been given, is the One whom we can know as Saviour, because He has met everything in Himself.
So John was told to write, “what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these”. He was able to come into the secrets of what was in the mind of the One who stood before him, and able to be with Him in His judgment of these things himself because he had judged them in himself. That is where it begins, and if we are to have any part at all in judgment administratively, it can only be as we judge things in ourselves first of all; but we judge them in the light of the One who has met everything in Himself in His going into death.
I read in 2 Corinthians because I believe in a sense it is a very parallel passage. Paul speaks of being “manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, that each may receive the things done in the body, according to those he has done, whether it be good or evil”. It is a sobering consideration for he goes on to speak of “the terror of the Lord”. But where I read later indicates how he had come to the same thing that John came to when
he fell at His feet as dead. So he says, “the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this—that one died for all, then all have died”. Because we were in that condition, He died,
“one died for all”, but “he died for all, that they who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who died for them and has been raised”. How wonderful that is, that if we must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of the Christ, and Paul says as to himself and those with him, “but have been manifested to God”, anything that would be unsuitable has been met, because One has died for all, and He has died so that we should no longer live to ourselves but to Him who has died for us and has been raised. So we are brought by way of the judgment into a sphere of life where He is supreme. How comforting it is that there is no fear in having to do with Him at His judgment-seat. It will be simply a review of the whole history of a believer in the light of what has been secured in it that will come through in glory, everything else having been removed and dealt with when He died for all. It is for us to appropriate it, although it is available to all. He gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2: 6), yet on the other hand His blood was “shed for many for remission of sins”, Matthew 26: 28. It behoves us each to come to it for ourselves and to avail ourselves of what has been effected in the death of Christ.
I read in 1 Corinthians because there we have again Paul speaking of something which we need to take account of to deliver us from the fear of man. “The fear of man bringeth a snare”
(Proverbs 29: 25), but here Paul is saying, “it is the very smallest matter that I be examined of you or of man’s day”. He is not concerned as to what the brethren may think of him, he is only concerned as to how he stands before the Lord. So he says, “I am conscious of nothing in myself; but I am not justified by this—but he that examines me is the Lord”. Can we all be like that? Can we all be free of fear and consideration as to what we may be thought of? Self-occupation and that kind of thing is really a very subtle
form of pride, but rather let us simply be content in our personal relations with the Lord. A very important thing which is to be stressed at the present time is our personal relations with the Lord. That is what stood Paul in good stead in his dealings with the Corinthians. They could speak of “his presence in the body weak, and his speech naught” (2 Corinthians 10: 10), but he was not concerned as to that. He stood before the Lord, as it says, “to his own master he stands or falls. And he shall be made to stand; for the Lord is able to make him stand”, Romans 14: 4. Of course it would be good to be able to commend ourselves to the brethren as he says elsewhere (2 Corinthians 4: 2). I am sure if the brethren are with the Lord and the servant is with the Lord, then there would be no question of the servant commending himself to the brethren; but the great point is that he should stand personally in his relations with the Lord. So he says, “it is the very smallest matter that I be examined of you”, but he says, “he that examines me is the Lord”.
Well, as I said, if there is anything which is not in accord with the Lord’s mind, then now is the time when we can have everything right. The One in whose presence we find these things searched out by those “eyes as a flame of fire”, is the One who has dealt with the whole matter Himself in His death, the One who has made perfect reconciliation, who has made perfect atonement, so that there is no need for us to be in fear as to anything which may come to light. Indeed in one sense we would welcome the scrutiny so that we might be assured that we are agreeable to Him, as it says in the scripture in 2 Corinthians. And then it goes on to speak about judgment, “So that do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord shall come”. What an important matter that is for us at the present time, not to judge of things before the time. Maybe at times we want matters to be settled and things cleared, but it is important that we should not arrive at things hastily but wait until “the Lord, the righteous Judge” comes into the matter, when there will be no doubt as to what the issue
is. In His judgments He has in view what is positive, has in view that which will remain, and so Paul says, “then shall each have his praise from God”. It would be disastrous to go before Him and seek to precipitate anything in the way of judgment, though we may carry things in prayer before the Lord, but wait patiently until the Lord manifests where He is in any matter, then the result will be that each shall “have his praise from God”.
I just read finally in Timothy. What a comfort that is, and must have been for the beloved apostle. Think of the tribunals where he had stood, before Felix, before Festus, before Agrippa, before Nero, these judges he had stood before, and here he was arraigned before the emperor. He says, “At my first defence, no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them. But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power”, 2 Timothy 4: 16, 17. What a comfort it must have been, and what a comfort it is to us, that the Lord is the righteous Judge. However things may be against us in the world, whatever we may suffer by way of reproach, whatever the young people may find in the difficulties at school or at work, we can esteem the reproach of the Christ greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11: 26), because there is such a recompense from “the Lord, the righteous Judge”.
He will not make any mistakes. He knows your committal, He knows your heart. Maybe you are conscious of weakness and failure but He knows and He is able for all that.
Not only is He the righteous Judge but He is our great High Priest, and He is our Advocate; it is wonderful to see all these offices go on concurrently. It is not like in the world, where one has one office and one has another, but how great He is, able to bear the glory as it says in Zechariah 6: 13, able to bear the glory of all these offices, or rather, able to bring glory into the office by taking it up Himself. How great the Lord Jesus is. We have in the types, prophets and kings and
priests, and so on, but all are fulfilled in one glorious Person, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So we may come to “the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God”, Ephesians 4: 13. It has been said that absolute consecration to Christ is the greatest bond between human hearts. Surely the more we know of Him, the more we know of His glory, the more our hearts are drawn out to Him in the many ways in which He is made known to us, and we shall be bound closer together and the enemy will be defeated as seeking to divide and scatter.
So what a comfort it was to the beloved apostle, “which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will render to me in that day”. That was a comfort to him, and then what he says surely is a comfort to us. Do we love His appearing? Are we looking for that time? Not for what it will be as a time of relief, a time of release, as the rapture will be. Paul could say, “the time of my release is come”. Are we looking forward to a time of release? You see aged brethren in their nineties, they say they are longing for the Lord to take them. He will do it in His own time. I visited an old brother once in hospital and he said he was anxiously waiting for the Lord to take him. The answer the beloved brother with me gave him was, ‘There is no need to be anxious, it will be in His own time’. The next time I saw that dear man I asked him how he was getting on, and he simply said, ‘His time, His time’. We can be restful in His time. The Lord is the righteous Judge and we can leave everything in His hands, but are we loving His appearing? Not looking for release, not looking for what it will be for us, not singing glory for me, but glory for Him, the One who is coming, “to be glorified in his saints, and wondered at in all that have believed”, 2 Thessalonians 1: 10. I think that is a wonderful comfort. It is perhaps one of the greatest expressions of divine grace, that we who have contributed to the shame of Calvary will have the great privilege of contributing to His glory in the day when He comes, to be seen and admired in all those that have
believed.
The Lord, the righteous Judge will render the crown of righteousness. Paul says, “not only to me, but also to all who love his appearing”. Are we looking for it because of what it will be for Him? Before that, at the rapture, when we see Him “we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2), but what will the appearing be for Him! To the very world where He, is still rejected, where He has been cast out—“the stone which the builders cast away as worthless” (1 Peter 2: 7) He will come, and God will “judge the habitable earth in righteousness by the man whom he has appointed”, as Paul could say to the Areopagites,
“giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead”, Acts 17: 31. What a time it will be for this world, but what a time it will be for Him, who has suffered so much unrighteous judgment at the hands of men, who took Him by wicked hands and crucified and slew Him, who said, “We will not that this man should reign over us” (Luke 19: 14), and,
“Not this man, but Barabbas”, John 18: 40. That was the greatest travesty of justice there ever was on the face of the earth. But think what it will be for Him to come and judge the world in righteousness. Are we looking for it? Are we loving it, for His sake? How wonderful it is to have the assurance that as we love His appearing we shall have part with Him in it. If we suffer with Him we shall reign with Him, and the Lord, the righteous Judge will render to us the crown of righteousness laid up for us, “to all who love his appearing”. May we be among them, and may our hearts be increasingly drawn out to Him; may we know Him better in the ways in which He can be known to us at the present time, ways in which He will not be known eternally.
Let us make the most of the little time that remains to learn Him thus so that we have a greater appreciation of the Person. It will be the same Person. His service as Saviour and as Advocate will have been completed,
but it will be the same Person. “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”, Acts 1: 11. “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and to the ages to come”, Hebrews 13: 8. As we appreciate His glory in these functions that He carries out in this waiting time, so there will be a greater answer from our hearts in the day of glory when He is supreme, where once He has been rejected. May we be helped in it.
Address at Barnet, 6 February 1993
EXTRACTS
Such is the introduction to this book. We now enter on its contents. John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. It is his place and privilege however then, as a Christian, which is spoken of, not the prophetic period into which he entered. In the day of resurrection—his own place—
the day on which Christians meet, the apostle, removed from the society of Christians, still enjoyed the special elevating power of the Holy Ghost, though alone; and is thus used of God, allowed to be banished for the purpose, for what He could not, in an ordinary way, have communicated to the assembly for its edification. The persecuting emperor little thought what he was giving to us when he banished the apostle; no more than Augustus, in his political plans as to the census of the empire, knew he was sending a poor carpenter to Bethlehem, with his espoused wife, that Christ might be born there; or the Jews and Pilate’s soldiers, that they were sending the thief to heaven, when they broke his legs in heartless respect for their own superstitions or ordinances. God’s ways are behind the scenes; but He moves all the scenes which He is behind. We have to learn this, and let Him work, and not think much of man’s busy movements—they will
accomplish God’s. The rest of them all perish and disappear. We have only peacefully to do His will.
J. N. Darby (‘Synopsis’ Vol. 5, p.374)
If a matter of discipline arises that is purely local and which requires priestly discernment, it belongs to the brethren, locally, and should be left to them; the unity of the Spirit requires that it should be left to them. Certainly we can trust them, for the Lord has trusted them, and we can do so, but if it be a question of principles, or of doctrine, then it is no longer local, it is general, and no one should then be trammelled with localism. In this case you want all the light there is available in these matters. The advice of the most capable, of the most godly, and of the most gifted is needed; in a word, we want all the help available.
J. Taylor (Vol. 27, p.498)
We have to learn the difference between the outward man and the inward man. We ought all to be exercised that we never get older than fifty; the Levite finished his service at fifty, and the Israelite at sixty. One would not like to become so feeble that one was not fit to be reckoned among the servants or warriors. It ought to be an exercise not to get so old as to be incapacitated. Paul felt the pressure of things in the outward man, but the inward was
“renewed day by day”. There is no age limit for priests; they never get old! There seems a special cheer in this being “renewed day by day”; it suggests a daily supply. It was actually the experience of the apostle, and therefore we might look that it might be ours.
C. A. Coates (‘Outline of Corinthians’, p.256)
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