EXTRACT

There is no difference morally between the Father and the Son. What the Father is in affection the Son is also. So the Son brings us into His own affection, and in doing so He brings us into the Father's affection. It is His pleasure to bring us into the circle of His own joy and affection, and in that way He separates us completely from the world. It is not simply that He has the claim of His death to be the good Shepherd, but He has a second title. He makes known to us the best thing He can make known. There is nothing to compare with the knowledge of the Father. That is what the Lord came to make known. He was here to declare His name and bring the disciples into the presence of the Father, and in John 14 He says, "I will come again, and receive you unto myself", that is, to the Father's house. What He does as the good Shepherd is to bring us now to the Father's heart, but He comes again to bring us to the Father's house.

If you understand anything about this, you can see how completely you are separated from the world by the light which Christ has brought in, and which is made effective in us. We know Him after the same order in the reciprocity of affection in which He knows the Father and the Father knows Him. It is heavenly blessing, and by the very fact of heavenly blessing you are separated from a world which has rejected both Christ and the Father. Everybody should be pleased, by the grace of God, to give to Christ His proper place. It is that which He claims, and He does not claim it without having substantiated His claim. He has done the best for us He could, and makes known to us the best He knows. The Son reveals the Father, and by the revelation of the Father He brings us to the Father's heart.

F.E. Raven Vol.12 p.481,482