THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (17)
[p. 381] THE LIFE WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS (17)
John 8: 12; John 10:10; John 10:27-29
JT The idea of following the Lord appears in chapter 8: 12: “he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”. Our inquiry so far would lead to this — the light of life — developing out of following the Lord as the light of the world. But what has to be considered carefully is how the light of life works out. The verse read will link on intelligibly with chapter 10 in which we find the idea of the “one flock”, which enters into the truth of eternal life.
AR Chapter 10: 10 says, “I am come that they might have life”. Is that, being in the plural, collective?
JT Yes. It is collective, working out immediately from chapter 9. So that the Lord says, “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”. The abundance of it is to be noted. It would not point to eternal life in the millennial position, but rather to the present time.
AR Would it suggest the idea that each saint adds to it, in that sense?
JT Well, normally he should. There is no idea of detraction in anyone who comes into the circle of life, because “he that follows me” is a characteristic person — such a follower is not likely to detract from what he comes into. The work of God is cumulative. According to chapter 4 the believer secured becomes part of the administration. This is seen in the woman of Samaria. When Jehu was drawing near to Samaria messengers were sent out to inquire, and he directed them to turn in behind him; 2 Kings 9: 18, 19. They were to become part of what he was going [p. 382] on with.
EEH The two mentioned in chapter 1, who followed the Lord and to whom He said, “Come and see”, would come into the light of this life?
JT That must fit into its own setting (John 1), but certainly the idea is there.
CAM Would you say that the Lord teaching in the temple in the beginning of chapter 8 bears on what follows with regard to life?
JT Well, life as affording light has to be linked up with vegetation. Genesis 1 contemplates life, first in the vegetable world, in view of the migratory ways developing in the human race. It would be seen in Abraham’s response to the divine command to leave his country and go to the land that God would show him. He ultimately came into the land of Canaan with which life is especially connected. The Psalms help us as to how life appears from the vegetable point of view. Psalm 107 contemplates God’s people wandering, and then ultimately He led them forth by a right way that they might go to a “city of habitation”. It is said, “He maketh the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry land into water-springs; and there he maketh the hungry to dwell, and they establish a city of habitation; and sow fields, and plant vineyards, which yield fruits of increase; and he blesseth them, so that they are multiplied greatly; and he suffereth not their cattle to decrease” (verses 35 - 38). This psalm is the beginning of the fifth book of Psalms, and it contemplates Israel journeying until the idea of the city of habitation comes into view, and then fruitfulness associated with that. I think that illustrates what we have in John 8, that the light of life is what is seen in fruitfulness. So that persons who are in quest of living conditions, potentially so, discover them in this way. The light of life would be the fruits of life. It is said, “Prepare thy work without, and put thy field in order, and afterwards build thy house”, Proverbs 24: 27.
[p. 383] I think that following the Lord as indicated in what has preceded in our readings would lead to the fruits of life.
ANW Is the light of life a more concentrated idea than, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”, John 1: 4?
JT I think this passage in chapter 8 contemplates the enlargement of what is stated in chapter 1, without indicating the limitations or extent of it. In John 1, it is what is in Christ only: “In him was life, and the life was the light of men”. But here he who follows has this result. “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (verse 12). He does not just say it is in Him. He is the Light of the world, but there is more than that. Following Him would bring out more than that, and I think it suggests the enlargement of life involving the saints, as we shall see in chapter 10.
JTJr So of Peter, the Lord says, “what is that to thee? Follow thou me”, John 21: 22. And then we have Peter’s shadow; Acts 5: 15. Would that have any bearing on this?
JT It would. There was substance there. He directed the lame man: “Look on us”. What he would see in Peter and John would be the extension of what is in Christ. I think that is the way we must reach this feature of the truth. We are coming to the end of our subject involving following the Lord and the persons you meet in the following. It is implied in the book of Acts in “the way”. It involves the persons that were in the upper room — those with whom the Spirit of God began.
CN Would the first verse of the first epistle of John help? The apostle says, “That which was from the beginning, that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes; that which we contemplated, and our hands handled, concerning the word [p. 384] of life; (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father ... )” (verse 2). Would the expressions that came out in the life of Christ among the apostles be the light of life?
JT Quite so; that was the “old commandment” which they had from the beginning; chapter 2: 7. It is what Christ was here involving His ministry. Then it goes on to say, “... which thing is true in him and in you” (verse 8). That is the new commandment; the new commandment is what came out in Christ carried on in the saints as seen in the Acts. I think that is what we ought to keep before us tonight “... which thing is true in him and in you”. It is regarded in a collective sense in the saints. Christ is not here personally, but the saints are, and the extension is in them, so that you get life in testimony “the true light already shines”. Where in a practical or concrete sense can it be found? While Christ was here it was in Him, but now it is in the saints. That is where it is concretely, and God has, as it were, diversified it and spread it abroad, so that the brethren, according to Psalm 107, arrived at life; they arrived at a city of habitation, and what supports the city of habitation is vegetation. This country affords abundant illustration of this; and, of course, the immigrants took the line of life to find their sustenance; that is, they followed the line of the rivers and lakes.
WR “The Lord added to the assembly daily those that were to be saved”, Acts 2: 47. Was the sphere of life in the assembly in that way for others to come in and have part in what was already there?
JT Quite so. And the one hundred and twenty names coincide with what we are saying. Names involve life; characteristics of persons. Properly a name conveys the characteristics of a living person, not a dead person. John had that in mind: “but [p. 385] these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”, chapter 20: 31. That is the testimony, and as a believer is moving and looking for what is right, following Christ, he will find the fruits of life among the brethren.
FSC What suggestion of the saints is in verse 12 which we have just read?
JT The light of life is in Christ, but, as we have seen, it is also expressed in the saints. Chapter 1 confines it to the Lord Himself, but the epistle regards it as light in the saints. He characterises Himself as the light of the world. “I am the light of the world; he that follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life”, John 8: 12. John’s gospel connects the testimony with Christ here, but it anticipates this life as also testimony. In his gospel John anticipates christianity, and I believe it is involved in chapter 8; in his epistle he treats of it as currently existent.
CAM So that the idea of following becomes increasingly noticeable in John’s gospel.
JT Yes. The light of the world is universal, going beyond Judaism. The light of the world would now involve Christ in heaven. The position of Christ is the light of the world. He does not say He is the light of life in this passage. He does say He is the light of the world, and that is universal in bearing. He is that in heaven. The concrete thing is here where it is touchable; where the result is to be seen — the light of life. That is, life as presented in John is the basis or source of light for men. Of course, God is light. This would refer to what He is morally as revealed in Christ.
JHE The apostle Paul saw a light above the brightness of the sun.
JT Yes. He saw the light but he did not get into the circle of the brethren for some time after that. “Enter into the city”, the Lord says, and he was led into the city in darkness. It was in the city he found the life in a practical or concrete sense. Ananias was sent to him by the Lord. Properly speaking, he came into practical relation with the brethren through Ananias.
AAT “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another”, 1 John 1: 7. What light is that?
JT That is God, as we already remarked, “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (verse 5). What we are dealing with now is the Lord’s statement: this verse we read in this wonderful chapter; John 8. It is a most potent and pregnant verse. It follows on all that we have had in these readings — the sequence, you might say — what marks christianity. John wrote in the period of christianity; he wrote this gospel long after he became indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Peter at the gate of the temple at Jerusalem said to the lame man, “Look on us”. That implied a spiritually substantial condition in two servants of the Lord; not, ‘Look on Christ’, but “Look on us”. That is what christianity is. It is spiritual, a substantiality here in man, effected by the Spirit. Christ was infinitely substantial in the same sense, but now it is also in the saints.
JHE The disciples were first called christians in Antioch. Would this be seen there?
JT That is one of the passages that enters into what we are speaking of. It was a wonderful thing there. Paul and Barnabas remained there for a year teaching in the assembly to bring out this great thing. The Spirit in the assembly effects it, and thus there is something concrete effected in man that can be presented as a testimony in the gospel.
ABP Is what you are speaking of seen concretely in chapter 9? The Lord prefaces His sign there with the words, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (verse 5). But the man really grew during the absence of Christ. I wondered if that might illustrate Christ’s position in heaven and life seen in the saints here.
JT Yes. The assembly is developed here, not in the immediate presence of Christ. He is absent. “Whom heaven indeed must receive till the times of the restoring of all things”, Acts 3: 21. And that is stressed in “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven”, Acts 1: 11. So His absence is real. But then it says, “shall thus come in the manner in which ye have beheld him going into heaven”. In the meantime the Spirit comes and life and other great results in relation to the assembly are developed through Him; that is, in the company, and all involves following. The book of Acts unfolds what it calls “the way”, Acts 9: 2. This contemplates what we are speaking of. It refers to christianity, which is worked out in the power of the Spirit while Christ is received in heaven, pending the restitution of all things.
APT “To whom shall we go?” chapter 6: 68. Is that indicative of the line on which the Lord is leading in chapter 8?
JT Quite so. Chapter 6 leads to that end. “Thou art the holy one of God” (verse 69), was especially in Peter’s mind. It refers to Him as the true Aaron. The Lord does not suggest that of Himself in chapter 8. Nor is it what He is in the sense of life; what He is as the light of the world is in mind, not only light to the Jews but light universally.
WWM Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 says, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels” (verse 7), and he goes on to speak of the life of Jesus that is manifested. Would that be what you refer to in the saints?
JT Yes. “... for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (verse 6).
God shone in Paul’s heart and in other hearts, and it was shining out in them.
ANW The Lord says to His disciples, “Ye are the light of the world”, Matthew 5: 14. But having the light of life would be more enjoyment.
JT Peter says, “Look on us”. Why did he not say, ‘Look on Christ’? That would not fit there because Christ was concealed in the heavens. That is, the assembly, or the saints who form it, as indwelt by the Spirit — what is effected by the Spirit now — is confirmative of what is in Christ. Paul says, “... for glory to God by us”, 2 Corinthians 1: 20. It is through the saints the truth is worked out in a practical sense. Peter, at the beginning of the dispensation, is calling attention to the concrete thing, what is under the eye of men. When Christ was here the testimony was set forth in Him, but now it is the Spirit operating in the assembly. Christ is, of course, the theme, but the Spirit here is the power by which the truth is effected and the testimony maintained.
EMcK It speaks of the disciples as being “of the way”. The Lord says to Saul, “why dost thou persecute me?” chapter 9: 4. Does that confirm what is being said — Christ as testimony in the saints?
JT Quite so; that is just the point; Saul was putting the saints into prison. The attack was against “the disciples of the Lord”: the Lord regarded them as Himself. He sent Saul to Damascus. The saints came before his eyes again in Damascus.
RWS When the apostles were told to go into the temple and speak to the people all “the words of this life” (Acts 5: 20), what was meant?
JT Filling out what we are speaking of. Peter said to the Lord, “thou hast words of life eternal” (John 6: 68); but it was the “words of this life” that they were to proclaim; that is, the life of Jesus, but that life is re-expressed in the saints. The assembly is thus the fulness of Christ.
[p. 389] AR That is christianity, not only what we say but what we are.
JT That is right — “all the words of this life”. They were that. That was implied in Peter’s words, “Look on us”. That is in the very beginning of the testimony in Acts.
AR It says of David that he was ruddy. Does that suggest that life was there?
JT Just so, and Abigail is the counterpart of that; she is a woman of beautiful countenance and good understanding; that is the assembly reflecting Christ. What you see in Christ, in that way, you see in the assembly.
TEH Does the anointing have in mind that life may be fully expressed?
JT Yes. It gives the saints dignity and power. Anointing as generally seen in Scripture has an official significance. In the New Testament it is by the Holy Spirit.
CN Would the end of Acts 2 confirm what you are saying? “And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers ... they received their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people; and the Lord added to the assembly daily those that were to be saved” (verses 42 - 47).
JT What delightful seasons they had! Think of three thousand fresh converts — what freshness, what power and what enjoyment! It was abundant life; John 10: 10.
JAP What is the difference between eternal life, which is enjoyed amongst the saints, and what we are speaking of now?
JT It is included. The Spirit in the assembly involves a sphere of life. Any exercised person coming in amongst the brethren normally gathered would be affected. They are affected by what they find.
[p. 390] Normally, christians love one another, as they did in the beginning. Many other things could be said, of course. The book of Acts has many illustrations of it. They show what accrued from the Shepherd coming in and affording life abundantly. “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”.
RWS Would you carry that thought down to today?
JT It is a question of what there is; whether you can speak truthfully. You can see the difference between the abundance in Acts 2 and what followed as compared with later years, and our own times. This is a day of small things. Things are small, but still we have the real thing; the idea of the remnant is what is real; the same as at the beginning only in a smaller way.
RWS The quality is there although the quantity might not be?
JT Just so. The remnant is part of the original, as has often been remarked. It is not a fag end.
FNW Is there a certain parallel in the recovery in Nehemiah’s day? It speaks of the city being inhabited by only a few, and after it is built up there is a celebration. The feast of tabernacles was held and it was such as had not been since the days of Joshua.
JT Just so. The prophets link up what there was with the full result in earlier days. We have in principle the same thing now.
TEH Evidently Paul and Apollos worked in Corinth on this line to establish life in an agricultural sense.
JT They did. The Lord says to Paul, I have much people in this city. A large number evidently were gathered, and what we have been saying illustratively as to this country where there is much life from the land, applies to Corinth. Paul planted and Apollos watered and God gave [p. 391] the increase.
DP The jailer asked for lights. Did he desire from Paul and Silas the light that you are speaking of?
JT I think so. That is a sort of clue which connects with chapter 20, where it is said that there were many lights in the upper room at Troas. These, no doubt, were figurative of the results of Paul’s ministry, because the persons mentioned in verse 4 as with Paul were the fruit of his work. We have their names given and the cities whence they came.
ANW And then of the Philippians he says, “among whom ye appear as lights in the world, holding forth the word of life”, Philippians 2: 15, 16.
JAP The prayer meeting at Philippi was by the river.
APf In Psalm 107 it says: “He maketh the wilderness into a pool of water”, but you must have fertile soil. Is that life out of death?
JT It is how God comes in to effect fruitfulness. We know also from the prophets that in the millennial day the earth will be fruitful. The wilderness is turned into a fruitful land. God does that. He turns the flint into a fountain of water. If there is no water on the earth, fruitfulness will soon go and the population will soon die.
APT Does the migratory principle begin when Adam and Eve are driven out of the garden? Is there any moral suggestion from that point on?
JT It is seen first in Cain. Adam and Eve were driven out, but how far they went we cannot say. But we do know that Cain went into the land of Nod, but then God afforded him some care — pointing to the Jews as under divine wrath, but nevertheless not wholly left. But the descendants of Seth, I believe, point to christianity, reduced to a few at the end — in Noah and his family. I believe that is how things worked out until Noah’s day. Corruption alas, prevailed, but nevertheless the light was carried through.
CN “But he secureth the needy one on high [p. 392] from affliction, and maketh him families like flocks”, Psalm 107: 41. I wondered if that would help.
JT Yes. Psalm 107 is the first psalm of the last book, looking to the millennial day. It is in Abraham that we really get the migratory principle. He is watched over, and so Psalm 107 has that in mind as applying to a future day. The redeemed will be gathered out of the countries. It has already taken place in the earlier history of Israel, but it is going to take place finally, presently.
APT Abraham had that in mind, did he not? he looked for a city.
JT Quite so; the idea is a city of habitation. See how the brethren like to get together. Things are very shallow, but nevertheless there is some little enjoyment, but we can see from the Scripture how it was at Pentecost and subsequently; and a similar result will be seen later — among the Jews.
JTJr Referring again to Troas; would the idea be that the many lights would be the superlative idea in this life-line, whereas you have another line of things in Eutychus who slept, and fell down? His life was still in him, of course, but he fell because he was asleep.
JT Quite so; that brings up a negative line of things, but the resuscitating power in Paul is very encouraging, showing what christianity is, potentially, if a vessel is available to be used for it.
JTJr Do we not have to deal with that kind of thing all the time? There are those that are in the truth, like Paul’s company, and then others who are liable to fall down because they are in a dangerous position.
JT Yes, and our care meetings and other such services are to be devoted to rescuing them.
RWS “Follow me” would be intended to regulate our lives in relation to the assembly and the testimony generally. I was thinking of your allusion [p. 393] to immigrants and rivers; a believer today following the Lord would follow the rivers, that is, the channels through which grace and refreshment flow. He would not be deliberately absent from the meetings.
FHL Is it the full thought of discipleship that disciples become sons of light as in chapter 12?
JT I think John has a list of the sons of light. Each of the special cases in his gospel, I believe, is a son of light. Those who believe in the light are sons of light; John 12: 36.
WR Do you see this working out in the Thessalonian saints? They became models for all that believed in Macedonia and Achaia.
JT Yes. In the second epistle hope is omitted, showing the tendency is to drop and leave out hope, but it marks the first letter.
ABP Is some particular phase of life set forth in the sheep?
JT I think we must touch on chapter 10 now and see how they come in. There are one hundred and fifty-three fishes mentioned early in chapter 21, but at the end we have sheep. They are saints, I would say, particularly of this dispensation. But chapter 10 is full of precious truth. We began to read in verse 10, “The thief comes not but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy; I am come that they might have life” (that is the sheep) “and might have it abundantly”. And in verse 27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one”. Our subject now comes on to eternal relations. However rough and disturbed the experiences that are ahead of us, we need not dread them. The Lord will carry us through. No one shall seize us out of His hand, and no one can [p. 394] seize us out of the hand of His Father. We have been instructed, especially in recent years, about divine Persons and their functions. It is not merely to have the truth as doctrine, but to have it practically in our minds; how the Father and the Son are engaged with us sovereignly. The Father by Himself and the Son by Himself, and yet in infinite unity.
ABP Is that why He reverts to the Father? He says, “I and the Father are one”. Does that take it from the personal — My Father — to the way God is known in this dispensation?
JT It is first, “My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”. That should touch us — that we are in the hands of divine Persons. The Father is viewed as the greater in the Son’s language. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one can seize out of the hand of my Father”. So that we are bound up there in the hands of the Father and the Son. And then, as you say, “I and the Father are one”. There is infinite unity between them. The Lord takes His position in lowly grace in that relation.
AR Does the use of the term ‘sheep’ suggest the idea of exposure? The sheep are exposed to attack, but secure in the care of divine Persons.
JT Just so. That has come to light in our times. These late wars especially have brought out how exposed the brethren are in military settings. What can we do? God has put us there. It is no accident. It is to bring out, I believe, the care of the Father and the Son for the sheep.
AAT What has John in his mind in speaking of perishing?
JT In the types it alludes, I think, to the period [p. 395] after the spies return from searching the land, when a great number fell in the wilderness. They piled up as dead in that bit of the wilderness. Think of the number of persons, six hundred thousand, perishing in a comparatively short time! Of course, we are accustomed now to carnage by the wars, but six hundred thousand persons out of a relatively small total perishing under the judgment of God was tremendous. I believe that is the allusion. It is perishing in the wilderness.
EMcK Is it falling short of the purpose of God?
JT That is what it would imply. Many are professedly christians, but they fall in the wilderness. Israel later had to traverse the same territory, and how solemnising it must have been! That section of Numbers is most solemn. What bones were seen! Death so strikingly came into their history as a testimony to the severity of God on those in outward relationship with Him, but who were in manifest rebellious infidelity.
RWS When Peter said, “Lord, here are two swords”, did he for the moment forget that he was being protected by His hands, and the other disciples, too, and they would be carried through?
JT Quite so. The Lord was speaking, you might say, in figurative language, to put them on themselves, as they were about to be deprived of Him, of His protection, for a moment. “I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad” Matthew 26: 31. Peter took the Lord’s words literally, failing to understand His position then. The Shepherd would rise and look after them, according to the teaching in John 10 of which we are speaking. Not a hair of the heads of the saints shall perish. “For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him that has loved us”, Romans 8: 36, [p. 396] 37.
AR It is helpful to see that our brethren who have been taken into military service are there by the will of God.
JT “The good and acceptable and perfect will of God”, Romans 12: 2. It is not always easy to accept that, but it is to be realised.
JTJr The ownership does not change. The idea of seizing out of His hand would imply that someone might try to change the ownership.
JAP The Lord uses the word ‘guarded’. He says, “those thou hast given me I have guarded”, John 17: 12.