PROPORTION
The idea of proportion comes into these two scriptures. God is a God of order. He is not a God of disorder (1 Cor 14: 33), and He is the God of measure, 2 Cor 10: 13. We might say He is a God who delights in proportion. The God of measure measures everything. All God’s dealings are measured, even with each one of us individually. There are certain difficulties, burdens and sorrows we have to bear but they are all measured; no one is called upon to suffer without the God of measure entering into it, and there is no suffering laid upon the believer without there being abundance of grace to meet it. There is never a measure of sorrow or burden beyond the grace that God is pleased to supply to meet that sorrow, whatever it may be. It is fine to think of, and to know, the God of measure. Everything is measured and everything is proportioned.
This first scripture speaks about the incense: “in like proportions shall it be”. It says “according to the proportions of it” in verse 37. What precedes the incense is the anointing oil. The anointing oil is also in certain proportions. The anointing oil comes down, it is upon persons who are anointed, but the incense arises. In a sense the incense is the answer to God from the anointing. Both the anointing oil and the incense speak of the Spirit, especially as the Spirit of Christ. No matter what is laid upon any one of us there is sufficient in the anointing to help us through in dignity and power. Then the answer is the incense. The anointing oil was put upon the whole tabernacle, but then the incense is what arises, a kind of answer, a response to what comes down. The Spirit came down at Pentecost, and the Spirit is available, as the Spirit of Christ, for every one of us for whatever is laid upon us. The Spirit of Christ is available to us for support and help, and for power and dignity, for God’s glory.
But the incense is what is found here for God’s pleasure in what ascends. It is the grace of Christ expressed. It was seen perfectly in the Lord Jesus when He was here. Think of the proportion of the graces seen in our Lord Jesus Christ. The dependent Man, the subject One, the obedient One, and yet the faithful One. In every situation faithful, and yet along with it, dependent, humble. Beautiful graces shone in the Lord Jesus here in perfect proportion. It has been said that there was not one outstanding feature in the manhood of our Lord Jesus Christ. That same spirit is to be taken on by us, so that there is proportion, things are proportioned. As helped in the Lord’s dealings with us, in instruction and in discipleship, by being attached to our Lord Jesus Christ and helped by the Spirit, we are meant to take on these gracious features which are seen perfectly in Him. God is pleased to use discipline too. He passes us through discipline, through sorrows and difficulties, but the end in view is that there should be some feature of the incense. It suggests prayer, how we pray. It is all for the pleasure of God. There is this idea of proportion in it, dear brethren, which I would be concerned about myself. There may be outstanding features with us, but then the proportion suggests an evenness that is to be arrived at by the Lord’s gracious dealings with us, including His discipline. We learn much by instruction, but we learn much by discipline, by things which we have to go through, things we would rather not go through, things we would rather not have to face. Yet the Lord uses these that there might be proportion in our moral being which is so pleasing to God Himself.
Now in Romans 12 we again have this idea of proportion. The human body is proportioned. There is no member outstanding in the human body; it is perfectly proportioned. Each belongs to the other, each belongs to the whole. The idea of proportion makes one whole. Paul writes here about one body having many members, but all the members have not the same office. That is, there is variety but it is all proportioned. In the human body there are a great variety of members, more than I could enumerate. You think of the different systems that operate in the human body—the respiratory system, the nervous system, the blood system. How much operates and each system helps the other, it is all proportioned; and so it is in the one body in Christ. This is meant to work out locally. There is meant to be proportion, making for unity and making for one complete whole, and every member is needed. Any member is missed if it is not functioning. Every member is needed in the local setting, and it speaks in verse 3 about each one having a measure of faith, “as God has dealt to each a measure of faith”. That is the God of measure, proportioning what is needed in the body. It comes down to the locality. God proportions what is needed in the locality. Every one is needed, but then no one dominates; the whole thing works smoothly—that is, the idea of the body is meant to be expressed locally. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul speaks about the body. He speaks about the one body, which would be a universal idea involving every believer who has the Spirit of Christ, but then he comes down to “Ye are Christ’s body, v 27. The assembly at Corinth was meant to express the features that were seen in the body universally. The body features work locally.
So it goes on to say here, “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”. Members of the body of Christ and members one of the other. Each one is necessary. Each one belongs to the other. It is not only the working of love, it is something organic. It is a question of belonging to one another. The human body is, I suppose, one of the most wonderful organisms that there is; but then the body of Christ is a more wonderful organism because it is not physical; it is spiritual, it is animated by the Spirit of Christ—a wonderful organism! We are members one of the other. “But having different gifts, according to the grace that has been given to us, whether it be prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith”. Each one has a measure of faith, and each one has a proportion of faith, and as we function in that proportion it makes for unity and oneness, a smoothness, all for the pleasure of God and for the edifying of one another. May the Lord help us to be attracted by this idea of proportion, to find out what our proportion is, and to fit in in that proportion for the glory and pleasure of God.
PLAINFIELD NJ
21st March 1978
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