NEW YORK, APRIL 7TH, 1910
NEW YORK, APRIL 7TH, 1910
My Dear Brother, — I am glad to have yours of October 8th. I think with you that Hebrews 2: 10 - 12 is an advance on Hebrews 10: 19 - 22. The tabernacle was really for the wilderness, it did not suggest a place of enjoyment. The holiest represents what we apprehend (by the Spirit, of course) with the mind rather than what we enjoy in the affections, which flow from relationship. Hebrews 2: 10 - 12 involved the latter only. Christ’s side is in view rather than ours. Hebrews 2 and John 20 are, of course, on resurrection ground, but they go beyond this. Resurrection refers to God’s power, His victory. It is the ground (righteousness accomplished) upon which God establishes the whole system which He purposes. There are many degrees of privilege in this system; the church has the greatest. We must be on our guard that we do not limit our privilege simply by resurrection ground. Angels announced the resurrection in the gospels, but the Lord announced our privileges, John 20. These consist of relationship and position. We are sons of God, brethren of Christ, and our place is heaven.
As to the wilderness, I apprehend it (1) to set forth the progress of the believer from Egypt to Canaan. I connect Marah, Numbers 21, Jordan, etc., with this, rather than the assembly as such. Then (2) I look upon the wilderness as the sphere in which God’s testimony is set forth, that is, the world where Christ died. Vitally the assembly is formed in Canaan, but those formed are also viewed as in flesh and blood, and they form God’s assembly in the world. With this position the Supper stands connected, as Scripture presents it. We know Christ is out of death, and by faith we are out of it; but we are actually in a state (flesh and blood) to which resurrection does not refer, and we are actually in a scene to which resurrection does not refer; the scene of Christ’s death and His absence now. There we remember Him; we remember Him as absent, but by a symbol which speaks of His death. To make my meaning clear, I would say again that when I say the Supper is celebrated in the wilderness, I mean that it is celebrated in the world viewed as the scene out of which Christ has gone ... where He is absent and where His rejection and death occurred, and that we celebrate it in the condition in which the Lord left us here (flesh and blood) and that it refers to us only in this condition. It is “till He come”, when this condition will cease.
Our assembly privileges lie outside this condition, and to touch them now we have to pass over to Christ’s side; but this involves spiritual power.
As to John 6, the point is to apprehend the Lord coming down so as to be food for all; but He dies, and the flesh is truly food, and His blood truly drink. “He that eats ... has eternal life;” it is individual.
The Supper refers to Christ’s love for us and ours for Him, but the more one is in John 6, the more will he respond to the Supper. I hope my meaning is clear to you.
Affectionately yours in Christ,
James Taylor.