“THE FULNESS OF THE BLESSING OF CHRIST”
J. Lovie
Luke 13: 15–16; 19: 5–10; Galatians 3: 9–14; Romans 15: 29–33
I think it is wonderful, dear friends, that in the glad tidings God proposes still to have man near to Him in the greatest possible blessing and in the enjoyment of His presence—not only to have man near to Him as redeemed, justified and reconciled eternally, but to have man near to Him now. In the provisional time in which we are, when sin and death are so rampant in this poor world, it is wonderful to know that God is to have men in the sense of His presence without a charge, that is, with no sense of distance, but near to Him in the blessings of the glad tidings. So that our blessings are not only for eternity, but for time. Many persons think in relation to eternity, and it is right that we should, but it is a wonderful thing to discover in your relations with God that you can come into the enjoyment of eternal blessings at the present time, to know what it is to be in the presence of God with ‘not a cloud above, not a spot within’, to know something of the unclouded sense of divine favour that shines so ineffably because of Christ who is before God in all His worth and acceptance as the One in whom we are accepted, the One who is our righteousness and our justification before Him.
So I have read these passages, following on what we had together in the reading on Romans 4, and as bearing on the thought of the righteousness of God and the blessedness of how man is accepted before God in Christ—there as justified, not only forgiven but justified. If there is anybody here who has not got the sense that their sins are forgiven, that experience is available for you tonight, right at this moment, as in faith and in repentance you put your trust in Christ. You can reach out the hand of faith as you sit on your seat. If you have never known before what it is to be forgiven, you can know right now.
God proposes freely to forgive the sinner, but to come into the enjoyment of that involves that you come in the sense of your need as a repenting sinner, stretching out the hand of faith and taking God at His word, laying claim to the blessing that God offers through faith in believing. What an Object for faith Jesus is! How wondrous the work of atonement He has done when He suffered in the sinner’s stead and bore the judgment of God due to sin. He was the Victim in the darkness of Calvary’s woe. He took the sinner’s place, bore the judgment due to the sinner, and He exhausted that judgment. He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, Psalm 22: 1. Why was it that God hid His face from Christ as the Sin bearer in the darkness of the cross? It was because God is holy (Psalm 22: 3) and in order that you and I, through faith in believing, night come into the sense of God’s unclouded favour and know the experience of forgiveness, in virtue of the work and the shed blood of Jesus.
Then we are to know not only that we are forgiven but that we are justified. I know I am justified in the fact that the One who died for me on the cross now lives in heaven in the presence of God. He is there as my righteousness and my peace before God. Oh the unclouded joy of coming into God’s favour in the worth of the Man who fills His presence, knowing that He is there as your righteousness, that God regards you as you approach Him as righteous, because the Saviour who died for you on the cross is now in His presence exalted. There is no trace of sin—it is all gone—
‘My sins—not in part, but the whole—
Were borne on the cross, and are gone evermore’.
They will never come up again; God will never raise again the matter of your sins because Jesus has borne those sins in His body on the tree, and as through faith and believing you lay claim to the precious Saviour tonight God regards you as justified, because Jesus, the One who has borne your sins, is now alive in His presence, a glorified Saviour.
These Galatian brethren were tending to go back to law, to think that they could be justified on the principle of law, and Paul brings in the elements of the gospel to meet this error. He points out that Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law. This is a very affecting matter that in the Galatian epistle redemption is from the curse of the law. Paul says, “having become a curse for us, (for it is written, Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree)”. The Lord Jesus took on the whole matter of the curse, took it on vicariously; it did not belong to Him, precious Saviour that He is. He took it on vicariously for you and for me. He took up the whole matter of the curse, and bore it Himself as hanging upon the tree. He took on the shame and the ignominy and the scandal of the cross, the Lord took on these things vicariously so that you and I should not know the curse, but that we should know the ineffable blessedness of divine favour and joy.
So it says, “that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”. So it is that God proposes in the glad tidings the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit, the blessing of Abraham coming to the nations. God is coming out to men everywhere on the basis of the new covenant in His unconditional proposals to bless. He is coming out in the blessing of Abraham, reaching out to the nations, that we should receive the promise of the Spirit. These two great thoughts are linked together in the glad tidings, that is, the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit. It is then, dear brethren, that this is all presented to us from the divine side.
I have read from Luke’s gospel as he brings forward a daughter of Abraham and a son of Abraham. Luke, who writes in the gain of Paul’s ministry, and the blessing of Abraham coming out to the nations, shows how Joseph’s branches have reached over the wall. They have reached to you and to me, who are of the nations. In Luke 13 we have the daughter of Abraham and it says, “whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years”. Think of the length of time that this poor woman with a spirit of infirmity had been bent together and wholly unable to lift her head up! That is the situation in chapter 13 of Luke. The Lord in His ministry of grace is drawing near and He is healing her on the sabbath day. God is doing that.
It is really how grace is out in all its beneficence to meet every need in Luke, the Lord being available in relation to every needy soul. This woman had been bowed down for eighteen years. Think of the length of that time! She has not been available to look up, or to stand up straight; nor had she been available in the praise of God. The Lord draws near in the ministry of grace, no matter how long the time this condition has obtained. He draws near and heals her on the sabbath day. It is then that the Lord identifies Himself in grace with this condition with a view to its alleviation and removal.
A wondrous thing this; no matter how long we may have continued in a certain way—this woman went on for eighteen years—the Lord in grace identifies Himself with the condition. He says, “Thou art loosed from thine infirmity”. He laid His hands upon her and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Think of the divine ideal in securing this woman.
God made man upright; He made him straight. It says that immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. Then the Lord said, “Ought she not to be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?”—this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound these eighteen years. What a thing it is then to be loosed. The Lord loosed her from what was holding her. The Lord could do that tonight. He could loose every soul from whatever hindrance is holding them.
You remember what Samson said to the young man who held him, he said, “Let loose of me”, Judges 16: 26. That is, through exercise he got free from some influence that was holding him. That is how it would affect you and me, that we concern ourselves to say, “Let loose of me”. That would be our side, that whatever hindrance, whatever it may be that is hindering, whatever element of prejudice, or resistance, may be in our hearts, in relation to the great thoughts of God, we shake ourselves free from it.
Here the Lord loosed this woman. He did it. O, we could never have loosed ourselves from that bondage and burden of restraint. The Lord did it in His grace. He said, “Thou art loosed from thine infirmity”. O, dear brethren, what a day this is in the soul of any person, however long they may have gone on in this condition of bondage, maybe bowed down for eighteen years. It says He laid His hands upon her. That is what grace did to this woman, a daughter of Abraham. She is extending the line of the family of faith. Abraham is the father of the faith family, and God set out in that dear man, through this progenitive way, the great thought of the family of faith.
Then when we come to chapter 19, we get a son of Abraham, Zacchaeus. He is little of stature; he wants to see Jesus and climbs up into a sycamore tree, for He is passing that way. As the Lord came to the place He looked up and saw him. The Lord knew Zacchaeus was there. He looked up and saw him, and said, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must remain in thy house”. What a touch of grace this is! What a touch this is of the blessing of Abraham, involving the obedience of faith, and involving how the house is to be affected by the great thought of baptism.
I think Zacchaeus would come into the light of that; he “obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which ye were instructed”, that is, he would obey the teaching of baptism, the teaching of Romans 6. The Lord says, “today I must remain in thy house”. There were those who complained that the Lord had turned in to lodge with a sinful man. Then Zacchaeus shows how much he is in the gain of—not only adding the fifth part, that was a requisite under the law that you pay the fifth part—but he says, “I return him fourfold”. He was prepared to recompense four hundred per cent. That is what grace can do in a son of Abraham as he gets this word from Christ. And Jesus says, “Today salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for, the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost”. So it is, dear brethren, that Paul says, “that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith”.
Now, when Paul proposes to come to Rome he says, “But I know that, coming to you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ”. O, I think this is the light of Ephesians, “the fulness of the blessing of Christ”. It is more than your relief, and mine, from the bondage of sin. It is how God proposes to have men for Himself, for His own pleasure and joy. God has nothing less in His heart for you and for me than that we should come into the wondrous enjoyment of His favour, to be before Him without a cloud, before Him as accepted in the Beloved, knowing that the place that Christ enjoys in the Father’s favour, is the place that God has in His mind for men, “the fulness of the blessing of Christ”.
How blessed to be there as suited for the presence of the God who sought our blessing, and to know that, through divine grace and divine working, we are not only forgiven, we are not only justified and have the gift of God’s Spirit, but we are brought to be at home in the presence of God with the sense that we are taken into favour in the Beloved. I think this is “the fulness of the blessing of Christ”. Paul proposes to come to the nations with this. He says, “I will set off by you into Spain. But I know that, coming to you I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of Christ”. He has nothing less in his affections for the brethren than that they should come into the enjoyment of the unbounded, illimitable favour of God; to know that favour shining in a Man in His presence, who is there as our righteousness and our justification.
May the Lord grant, dear brethren, that the precious fruits of the glad tidings may be more effective in us, to know what it is to be at home in the presence of the God who has sought our blessing, who has made it possible through the work that Jesus has done that we should be before Him with the sense of His favour, as taken into favour in the Beloved. It is what God in His favour extends to the nations in the One who is in His presence as Man. That can be your experience and mine as we come by way of repentance through faith in believing and in the experience of the gift of the Spirit and the enjoyment of the favour of God.
Preaching at Macduff
14 April 1974