MORAL GLORIES SEEN IN CHRIST AND BEING FORMED IN THE SAINTS
P. Martin
Hebrews 5: 5–9; Psalm 22: 9–11; 40: 6–8; 16: 5, 6; 1 Timothy 6: 6–8
I desire beloved, as the Spirit may help me, to say a word as to certain moral glories that were seen in Jesus and which the Spirit is forming in the saints. There are of course, glories that mark Him as to which we shall never share; He stands in His distinctiveness. He came into manhood and glories belong to Him as man, which belong to Him alone. Right at the beginning it says, “thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins”
(Matthew 1: 21); a glory that belongs to Him and to Him alone. He came as the Messiah, and soon He will be seen by Israel as the Messiah, but it is a glory that He has as man which could only be His. There are many others, myriads of them, we could not speak of them in one hour, it will take eternity to unfold the glories that Jesus has as man; maybe we could contemplate them a little.
But I have read this verse in Hebrews because it speaks of the One who was dependent, the One who was obedient and the One in whom piety was seen; three moral features that came into expression in Jesus, and are being formed in the saints. These three features were lost at the fall. Man ceased, in his own view, to be dependent on God, he listened to another. He became disobedient because he listened to another and he found himself in circumstances in which he was not free with God. Those three features were lost at the fall and they were seen in perfection in the life of Jesus. How wondrous that it should be so, that what came into expression in the life of Jesus in that perfect humanity, was One who was dependent, obedient and pious. He took up, as coming into flesh and blood, what belonged to man as before God and it was seen in Him in perfection He displayed as a man before the eye of God, all that God looked for in man. What a person He is, the Lord Jesus. I ask you dear young soul, do you know Him? I would love you to know Him. You would not understand what we would be speaking of, if you did not know the Person in whom these moral features were seen. Think of all that had taken place before, in the history of time, God’s patient dealings with man, waiting on him, how patiently God had waited, but when the Lord Jesus came into manhood everything that God looked for was there, everything was there in a blessed man. And in that man God found nothing that was not delightful to Him, every feature was attractive in Jesus.
But I touch on these three features as feeling the need of them for myself whilst in the world though which we are passing, and that we might feed perhaps, not only in this short time, but as we go away, on the One in whom these features were seen. The Lord Jesus came into manhood and moved forward as deriving everything from the Father, everything. It has often been said as to Him in relation to Isaiah 53 that he drew nothing from the world, he grew up as a tender sapling and as a root out of dry ground (Isaiah 53: 2). Nothing that He received did He receive from this scene; He received everything from the Father. As coming into manhood He entered into conditions in which He could be dependent on another. Psalm 22: 9
brings it out touchingly, and I have referred to it just to guide our thoughts, “thou didst make me trust, upon my mother’s breasts”, what perfection in the life of One who came in as a lowly babe. Mr Darby says as to Him in his hymn, He came in ‘Nor yet in triumph passing, But human infancy!’ (Hymn 188). Oh how wondrous that He should come in as a dependent man. If you read the early chapters of Matthew you find that He came into conditions in which He needed to be protected, an angel of the Lord says to Joseph, “take to thee the little child and his mother”, Matthew 2: 13. God was protecting that dependent life here in a babe,
“take to thee the little child
and his mother”. The One who was there, of whom God was speaking, was none less than the creator of the universe. The One who held it all in His hand, as Isaiah speaks of Him, “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with his span, and grasped the dust of the earth in a measure”, Isaiah 40: 12. You think of Him the One great enough to hold the whole universe, and yet in wondrous grace He should come into manhood, and in doing so displayed before the eye of God what was proper in man. What a stoop.
He who “did not esteem it an object of rapine to be on an equality with God; but emptied himself, taking a bondman’s form”, (Philippians 2: 6, 7), what a person. Oh I say to you, dear soul, Do you know Him, because He knows you, and in His mind in that stoop was that He might draw near to you, and that He might take you up for blessing. He came into conditions in which He was dependent upon His God. You and I do not know what is before us, save one thing, and that is the glory, but He knew that the cross was before Him, and moved forward as a dependent man. When Satan tried to move Him aside from that course, in the temptations, he tried to take Him out of the pathway of dependence and out of the pathway of obedience to the will of God, but he found no answer in the perfection of that humanity. The Lord Jesus did not answer Satan in the strength of His own majesty, which He could have done, because soon He will annul him, but He answers him in the dependence of a man upon the word of God. He says, “it is written” (Matthew 4: 10). He knew the word so fully, so perfectly. He came to Nazareth where He was brought up, it says, and He found the place where it was written. We have had reference already in our reading to the need for the reading of the Scriptures, how necessary it is to know the Scriptures; He found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me”, Luke 4: 18. He had waited to be anointed. He did not move forward in His own power, as great as that would have been, but He waited to be anointed in order that
He might move forward dependently.
We read in Luke 2 that He was found in the temple, not as teaching, the time for that had not yet come, He was still waiting, but He was asking, He was “hearing them and asking them questions”, Luke 2: 46. That was a boy of twelve, in the temple. I guess there are boys of twelve here today and we ask questions because we do not know the answer, but it says as to Jesus that they wondered at His answers (Luke 2: 47). He did not take up the place of the teacher because His time had not yet come, but He waited as a dependent boy, hearing and asking questions. What excellence was seen in such humanity. We are in a world, dear brethren, where dependence on God is largely lost, but it should not be so for the believer.
We are dependent on God for everything. Luke’s gospel brings out the praying man, the One who was here moving in dependence, if it was so in Him, in absolute perfection, how necessary that those of us that are of His generation should be formed in that character, by the Holy Spirit, of dependence upon the Father. We have no other resource dear brethren, than what we derive from divine Persons. I would say simply, the Father gives you employment, if you pray about it you find the Father provides, take it from Him. The Lord Jesus knew what it was to be a carpenter, it was not something great in the eyes of man. He was content in the humble circumstances of daily life, and in those circumstances there was an expression of a dependent man.
Now He was also obedient. Not as we might be. I have been pondering this a little. I sometimes hear a boy being asked not to do something, and when he stops he is told that he is good because he was obedient, and that is true. But obedience in Jesus was different. He never needed to be adjusted in any way, because His obedience meant that He was always desiring, and doing the things that were pleasing in the Father’s sight. “He learned obedience” it says “from the things which he suffered”. We have often been
reminded that He did not need to learn to obey. But He came from circumstances in which previously He had been in command, but came into conditions in which He learnt what obedience was, how perfect He is. The psalm brings it out in a feeling way. The writer says in Psalm 40: 7, 8, “Then said I, Behold, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me—
To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight”. That was His obedience, it was not that He did something that was contrary to what He found His pleasure in, that could never be, what He did was ever the desire of His heart, that heart was one with the Father’s heart. He found His pleasure in doing the Father’s will, and He carried it through as a dependent man here, in obedience.
Obedience belongs to man, because of who we are, obedience to God first, how necessary, and His word comes in order that it might be received and obeyed. And those that love Christ find delight in answering to it because it is the word of God. The Lord Jesus knew what it was, as it says prophetically, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”, Isaiah 50: 4. He knew what that was, He found His joy we might say reverently in the communications that He received from the Father, what obedience marked Him, not according to law, no, He came and fulfilled the law and made it honourable, that was a consequence of His obedience; it was not the action of His obedience, the action of His obedience was His desire to please and satisfy the Father, and to live in the enjoyment of the communion which had never been broken until it came to the cross. How wondrous a path, what delight the Father must have had, you know, in One whose every motive, every desire was in keeping with His own.
So it says, “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight, and thy law is within my heart”.
Every thought, every longing that was there in the heart of God found its expression in the person of Jesus. And in His movements, before going to the cross, in Gethsemane He could say, “not
my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22: 42. What a Person, without a question He went forward taking on Himself all the cost of what it would mean that the will of God should be accomplished. You can understand Paul writing that “by the obedience of the one the many will be constituted righteous”, (Romans 5: 19), the obedience of the One. It is in view beloved, that that feature, in some measure might be formed in us, not formed in us as seeking to obey the law, but the desire, formed through communion, to do that which He finds His delight in, “To do thy good pleasure, my God, is my delight”. May the exercise be so with each of us, that we may live here in the enjoyment of our relationship with divine Persons.
Christianity is not just outward, there is what is outward, and we should be careful as to it, but Christianity stems from what is inward from the affections of the heart, and the desire for a relationship with divine Persons that may not be intruded upon through anything that I may allow. It was never intruded upon in Him, and the Holy Spirit in the believer would create desires for which He would give the strength, that we might know what it is to be formed in some measure, in the features that were in expression in Jesus. You say, How do we reach it?
I would say dear friend by feeding upon the One in whom these perfections were seen, and by judging in myself the features that are so contrary, and the Spirit would help us to do so. How wonderful He is, it says, “He shall glorify me” (John 16: 14); where is He doing that? He is not doing it in the world. Soon the Lord Jesus will be publicly vindicated in the world. We break bread on the first day of the week and we have that in view, His public vindication, but in the present moment the Spirit is glorifying Him in the saints, and He is glorifying Him as those features that are so delightful to God in Jesus are formed in persons here. That really is the dignity of the anointing coming into expression. Paul says to the Corinthians as to the body, “so also is the Christ”, 1 Corinthians 12: 12. There in that vessel are the features that are so pleasurable to God, and they are formed
through the presence, operation, and power of the Holy Spirit.
Now I come to piety. Piety was seen in Jesus. He was heard because of His piety. I find this most affecting, in speaking of it. It does not say, He was heard because He was Son. He was heard because of His piety, “though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered”, He was heard because of His piety. He gave God a basis to hear Him. How wonderful that is you know, that such a One who knew and enjoyed such sweet communion should give God a basis to hear Him. The One who knew He would save Him out of death, as the footnote says, it is not from death, He knew He was going into it, but He went into it dependently knowing that God was able to save Him out of it; and indeed He has found His pleasure in doing so, and set Him down at His right hand. Oh what a Person, the One who learned obedience when everything was against Him.
I was thinking as to the overcomer in the addresses in Revelation, and to each there is something that needs to be overcome, and I expect dear brother and sister, you know and I know what it is that we have to overcome, but I thought of Jesus, everything was against Him, everything. The disciples all forsook Him and fled, His own brethren said He was mad and had a demon, Israel rejected Him, not only did they not receive Him, but finally rejected Him. The Roman empire crucified Him and His God forsook Him, and He says to Laodicea,
“as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne”, Revelation 3: 21.
What a word you know; you say you do not know what circumstances I have to face in life practically, to which obedience tests me, and dependence may test me, but the One who went through as the overcomer had everything against Him, everything; as Mr Darby says in his writings, ‘without one ray of light even from God’ (Collected Writings Vol. 7, p.169). And yet He went through, what a man, how perfect, how devoted to
God’s will, how obedient, with a desire in His heart as going through the sufferings of death, that there would be an answer for the pleasure of God, and knowing that there would be, because He went that way as a dependent man, He knew that there would be an answer.
Dear brother and sister, you may go out to work, or stay at home, whatever the circumstances and you may have tests as we all do, but just remember this, that there when Jesus was here everything was against Him, there was not one element of support. He stood there in Pilate’s court, there was not one ray of sympathy. He watched Peter deny Him, Judas had already betrayed Him, what feelings must have been in His heart and yet He could say to the overcomer, “as I also have overcome”.
I come to piety because it is a feature that was seen so perfectly in the life of Jesus, and in those circumstances God was manifested. In the carpenter’s shop, and as a boy of twelve in the temple, God was manifested, in every detail in the life of Jesus you could look and you could see that God was there. When Paul writes to Timothy, he says, “the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh”, 1 Timothy 3: 16. What circumstances they were. I might say, Well if I got on a bit better I could give more time to these things! Oh the circumstances in which the Father sets you are the best circumstances in order to work out what is pleasing to Himself, and in which He might come into them as you make way for Him. We have often been reminded that piety is having our circumstances so ordered, that God Himself can enter into them and no doubt that is true; but I think also our circumstances and ourselves should be so ordered, that God is manifested in them in testimony.
He says in Psalm 16, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places”. That was piety with contentment; it says that in Timothy, “piety with contentment is great gain”. That was so in Jesus, piety with contentment was seen in Jesus.
“The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places”. He went down to Nazareth and was subject to His parents, “pleasant places”. Not a holiday resort as I would understand, but a place to which men would rather not go, Jesus went down to Nazareth and was in subjection to His parents. What movements they were, movements of a man, a dependent and an obedient man, but movements of one who took every circumstance and moment of His life in relation to His God. “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”. What a heritage He has, and had when He was here in communion with His Father that was His heritage. His heritage was not on the earth, He will take that up later. He came to the earth, knowing that He would be rejected from it; His heritage was in His relationship with His Father, “yea,” He says “I have a goodly heritage”. What does it say? “Jehovah is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup—thou maintainest my lot” (Psalm 16: 5). That was His inheritance; Jehovah.
He lived in those circumstances with a link with His Father into which nothing could intrude, not only that He did not allow anything to intrude, but nothing could intrude, because of who He was. He moved in the perfection of a manhood that was fully in keeping with the deity of the Father, how wondrous! Perfect in every way, and in the circumstances through which He moved He remained in communion. It seems to me, dear brethren, that if piety in any sense is to be manifested in the believer’s walk it involves a walk of communion. A walk in which we might know what is suited to the holiness of God, and a walk in which we might know the intimacy of the affections of the Father, such a walk lies at the root of the enjoyment of piety, and is worked out in the circumstances in which God has set us.
Some of us may have circumstances that were not of our choosing. We may find ourselves perhaps in employment which we did not think would turn out quite the way it has.
and there are brethren here like that and going through pressure at the present time because of it, but I would say take it from the Father, you take what He gives. Piety involves that I do what is righteous. Simeon was that, he was just and pious, those two features go together in the believer’s life, he did what was righteous, and we are to do what is righteous. If we are not righteous we cannot bring God into our circumstances. But as Paul says to Timothy,
“having sustenance and covering we will be content with these”. We do not need a lot here today because we are leaving immediately. We are expecting that the Lord Jesus may come today, the believer lives in the expectancy of the imminence of the coming of the Lord Jesus, and thus can live simply in relation with God.
So Paul says to Timothy, I write these things “in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house”, 1 Timothy 3: 15. We are always in God’s house. You may go out and no one sees you, the brethren do not see you during the day, or you may go out in the evening I do not know, but remember this, that you are in God’s house. You are in God’s house because the Spirit of God dwells in you, you are in God’s house and your behaviour and conduct Paul says to Timothy should be in keeping with God’s house, in keeping with the holy presence of the Spirit. You say surely Timothy did not need that exhortation. Paul says as to him “I have no one like-minded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on” (Philippians 2: 20), but Paul says to Timothy, I write these things to you “in order that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house”, and then he goes on and says “confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh”. How wondrous that mystery, the mystery of piety, something the world does not understand. They see you going about your duty and doing it righteously before God but they do not understand that it comes from a link with God Himself, and in that link there is the desire that everything should be suited to the holiness of the divine presence.
I touch on these things lightly. They affect us all, as indeed they affected Timothy. They affect us if we are young, and if we are old. There are young ones who are seeking employment, and have before them, as men would say a career. I would say, dear brother and sister, pray about it and ask the Father to give you what you need, to be here for the Lord Jesus in His testimony. Ask the Father to do it. We were reading at home this morning as to Paul, it says that he went to Aquila and Priscilla and abode with them for they were of the same trade, they were tentmakers, (Acts 18: 3). You say here was a man who had sat at the feet of Gamaliel. Yes, Paul says I am quite content to make tents with Aquila and Priscilla, because all the education I learnt at the feet of Gamaliel, and all the benefits, he says to the Philippians, I count to be loss on account of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, (Philippians 3: 8). What a person, who could come to that, who had had the best education, the highest degree in the land, and he counted it all to be loss because Christ had taken possession of his life and held him, and held his affections, and so he comes and he makes tents. I say the Father will provide, you pray about it, the Father will provide what you need, and in doing so He will provide you with what you need in order that you might be able to care for the interests of the Lord Jesus. That is an important matter in the present day. There are persons in the older generation that the Lord is taking, there are those of us that are younger; we have a responsibility to take up the responsibility of the local company and its functioning in order that there might be that which is for the heart of Christ until He comes, piety enters into that. And the Lord Jesus would help us in it if we are prayerful and desirous to do what is pleasing to Him.
I have touched on these things, may we follow them up dear brethren prayerfully, that there might be here, formed by the Spirit, something of those moral features that were there in excellence in the person of the Lord Jesus. May it be so for His name’s sake.
Address at Havering
31 October 2009