ETERNAL LIFE
ETERNAL LIFE
JT The thought I had before me was of eternal life. I felt that the line of things we have been dwelling on ends in that.
FL That is, we have looked at life as in the believer, but eternal life is a particular character of life. It involves a sphere.
JP Yesterday you used the word “infused”; the thought of life in that connection is subjective.
JT Yes, I think that is an important distinction. First of all, life is introduced into the believer, a vital element or principle, but eternal life is that into which he may be said to be introduced.
RSS Life is introduced by the reception of the Spirit.
JT Yes, Ezekiel 37 teaches that side. The people of Israel are made to live and unity follows. Judah and Joseph become one. This is contemplated in Psalm 133.
WLP What is the force of eternal life? Is life itself not eternal?
JT It is, and we are eternal as made to live. Eternal life is an order of blessing which depends on certain conditions, and these conditions are established in Christ as risen from the dead. But it is not only that Christ is risen, but by His quickening power He brings men into life here on earth and puts them together so as to form a moral sphere where life for evermore is, so to say, “commanded”. According to Matthew 25 the nations shall go into eternal life. That into which they go must be there before they can go into it. My understanding of the subject is that Israel as made to live, according to Ezekiel 37, will be the sphere of it.
FL Life communicated from God is in its nature eternal in duration, but life itself is not what scripture [p. 457] calls eternal life — scripture must define its own meaning; the dictionary does not help us there.
RSS That is, a certain character of life is implied by the word “eternal”.
JT And it is definitely called blessing: “There the Lord commandeth the blessing, even life for evermore”. Psalm 133: 3. If you follow scripture the thought of blessing carries you back to Abraham, to whom God said “In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed”. Genesis 18: 18. It is in Isaac (Christ risen) that the blessing is secured. Christ as having died and risen brings the order of things to pass here in which the blessing is realised. So Psalm 133 comes in after the two sticks in Ezekiel have been put together; then comes the crown of it all — life for evermore.
JP In Psalm 21: 4 there is mention of eternal life; “length of days for ever and ever”, but that is in connection with Christ personally. Psalm 133 is the first time it is mentioned in connection with others.
JT It is the first time it comes in as a definite thought.
FL I take it that the well-instructed Jews looked for eternal life as something that had been promised — for example, the young man said, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10: 17) and the Lord said to the Pharisees, “Ye search the scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have life eternal”. John 5: 39. They looked for it with definite expectation.
JT I am sure of it, but they never could have had the right thought of what it was — that the Lord would take up a company, form them with flesh and sinews upon them, make them stand on their feet, put them together, and breathe life into them, and so make them a sphere where eternal life should be realised. The knowledge of the Father and the Son is in this sphere.
SF There is a distinction between the breathing [p. 458] on the disciples in John 20 and the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost: on the day of Pentecost unity is promised.
JT Yes, and in a sense the blessing was commanded which was foreshadowed in Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel refers to an eternal scene. Israel will be taken up and set in their own land and the blessing commanded, but the blessing will not be for themselves only; they will have the good of it, but the blessing will be there for others also. This will be literally true in Israel in the future.
WLP What is the force of “There the Lord commanded”? Psalm 133: 3.
JT The blessing is from God, “commanded” by Him, but I do not think it is understood what conditions are required before the blessing can he commanded. It has ever been in God’s purpose and it was brought to light by Christ, but it depends on certain conditions. This in no way conflicts with the truth that Christ is eternal life, for He established the conditions, and apart from Him it does not exist. Scripture teaches that eternal life here on earth depends on certain conditions, and no such conditions are found in man after the flesh divine power brings them in, and then God commands the blessing.
WHF Eternal life now implies a sphere for us?
JT Yes. If we could get a company of people such as Acts 2 presents, we should have the conditions in which eternal life, as it is to be known at the present time, is realised.
WHF And enjoying it you are in the sphere where divine Persons are known. “That they might know thee the only true God”, John 17: 3. Christ as the last Adam (a life-giving Spirit) has not been properly laid hold of; and I feel it would be helpful to get an apprehension of Him in this light at the present time.
JT In the future God will bring the tribes of Israel into life; He will make them live, and put [p. 459] them together to form the conditions under which the blessing is commanded.
Ques Would you say that in the day when eternal life is displayed one condition is that death is removed?
JT Death is removed because they are seen as taken out of their graves. “He will swallow up death in victory”, Isaiah 25: 8.
Ques Where is eternal life realised today?
JT Christ is eternal life, but the realisation of it, as we have been saying, is, in scripture, made to depend on certain conditions. The conditions are found among those who are made to live by the quickening power of Christ. It is most interesting to revert to the dealings of God with Israel prior to this. In the Songs of Degrees you trace the effect of the light of God on the remnant, step by step, until a place is reached where the ark can rest. The work of God is not effectual in them till Christ finally obtains a place in their affections. In Revelation 7 they are marked off by God and sealed, but later they are not only sealed, but they are with the Lamb on Mount Zion. He now has a place in their affections.
Ques Then you must first see God’s conditions before you can get to the other side?
JT Yes; Christ has authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father gives Him. The Gentiles get the blessing from Christ, and enjoy it in Him. They come into the benefit of Israel’s exercises and sorrows, but they do not go through the same themselves. The blessing is not commanded in connection with the Gentiles, but with Israel — on Mount Zion. What the Gentiles enter into shall be already there in Israel. God forms Israel in a special way, evidently, because the blessing which He has designed for the nations is to be realised in connection [p. 460] with them.
RSS The Lord Himself passed through their sorrows when here.
JT Yes, and the disciples also, in a measure. They were with the Lord in Gethsemane. So we see in them what is analogous to the suffering remnant of Israel in the future. The blessing in its present form was seen in them at the beginning. Eternal life was obtained through faith in Christ, but the realisation of it involved that the believer entered into a sphere where the conditions of life obtained. He passed out of death, the world of hatred, into life, the world of love. The proof of this to himself was that he loved the brethren. 1 John 3: 14.
Another thing that is of immense importance in connection with the scripture before us is the subject of dwelling. This is consequent upon unity. In Ezekiel 37 unity follows upon life, and then dwelling. God says, “my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore”. Ezekiel 37: 26. This accords with Psalm 132.
JP The expression in Psalm 132: 13,14 is very beautiful: “For the Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever here I will dwell; for I have desired it”.
JT In the Old Testament it is not so easy to see the connection with the assembly, but it has to be admitted that, although the assembly has more in the way of privilege than Zion shall have, yet the former possesses all that is distinctive of the latter. There is nothing plainer in the New Testament than that the assembly is the dwelling-place of God, and hence all the blessing that flows from this is realised in it.
Rem So that really eternal life is to live in the love of God.
JT Psalm 133 shews what shall mark the tribes of Israel in the future — that is, they shall dwell together in unity. It speaks not only of the unity, but of the goodness and pleasantness of it. Note that it speaks not alone of brethren being united, but of [p. 461] their dwelling in unity. It speaks of what this is like. “It is like very great and precious things. It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments”. Psalm 133: 2. That is, it is like Christ Jesus in heaven giving the Spirit to His people here on earth. This wonderful likeness may be seen in a few brethren, as well as in a great number.
Ques Is the ointment in connection with the testimony?
JT Yes, it is seen externally, the dwelling together in unity is good and pleasant to look on. It is of the Spirit, because it is like the Spirit in its largest aspect, coming from the true Aaron in heaven; the dwelling together in unity is like that; no matter how small it is, it is like the precious ointment. Ointment is to make one shine: it is not taken internally. Living water is taken internally, and breath is infused within, but the ointment is on the head. There was no need to raise the question as to the doctrine of the Spirit in Acts, because their faces shone. The testimony to His presence was undeniable.
JP Nor the question of salvation, because the ointment was seen on the skirts of the garment.
JT They were clothed with that. “I will clothe her priests with salvation”. Psalm 132: 16. The need for the doctrines at the beginning was not so apparent; in the later epistles they were put into form in view of the waning of life among the saints, but at the beginning people wore salvation as clothes, and the Spirit was externally manifested. All comes out in Acts; all things foreshadowed as to Israel in the future found their answer in the saints at the beginning.
RSS What about the dew of Hermon?
JT It suggests something very great; the beneficent influence of Christ. Falling on the mountains [p. 462] of Zion, it would point to the Spirit in another way.
FL That is the source of fruitfulness.
JT Exactly; so that there is not only the shining, but also what is for God.
WHF There is no responsibility connected with the conditions of life.
JT No; God brings them to pass that blessing might be available. He had promised the blessing to Abraham, now He is making it good. It might be said that the blessing of Abraham has arrived at the nations in Christ Jesus, and it has; it cannot be dissociated from Him; but that is not incompatible with the teaching of this psalm, that the existence of eternal life is connected with certain conditions.
FL Eternal life is in contrast with life in the garden of Eden. That was a sphere of life, but it could be interfered with, and it ended: eternal life is established in Christ risen, and is wholly apart from life here, the question of death having nothing to say to it; and it is God’s answer as showing the beauty and energy of life in the very sphere where transgression and death have been. It is essentially blessing, and it cannot be touched by death.
JT Yes. It is a wonderful thing to see Israel, so grasping after things as they are now, thus converted, and formed of God that they become a channel of blessing to the nations.
FL Eternal life has been narrowed down by many to an unending existence of happiness in heaven, but going to heaven is not in view here. Another genuine difficulty is that this view of eternal life does not seem to be sufficiently connected with the Person of Christ. Scripture says, “He is the true God, and eternal life”. 1 John 5: 20. There is a fear lest the thought of eternal life be divorced from the Person of Christ.
JT Yes. I think the difficulties which exist are largely attributable to the fact that the conditions we [p. 463] have been speaking of are not manifest at the present time.
FL It involves serious exercises as to whether each one is up to it.
JT My own exercise has been not only that souls do not seem desirous of entering into eternal life, but that the conditions necessary to it are not apparent. If we were more acquainted with the conditions which existed at the outset, we should not have so much difficulty.
FL We see the assembly at its best in Acts, and there we get light as to what will be by-and-by. If we can see what eternal life will be in the world to come, perhaps we can work back to what it should be today.
JT It is seen as it will be in this psalm: first, you must have brethren. These are brought into being by Christ — that is, He has breathed into them. The Spirit being here we may presume there are those among us who live; there are brethren; if so it should be a matter of profound exercise to each one as to whether we are dwelling together in unity. The conditions of life are found where such unity is. If you are part of that you do not miss the blessing yourself, but you help to form a sphere to bring blessing to others. “Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, as ye have been also called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all”, Ephesians 4: 3 - 6. That is God’s thought for us.
FL And it is never dissociated from divine Persons.
JT They dwell there. The sphere has to be taken account of by itself, but the very conditions we have mentioned involve the presence of God. “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him”. 1 John [p. 464] 4: 16.
The blessing is consequent on the presence of divine Persons.
FL It is characteristic of eternal life that God gives it.
JT It is a wonderful thing that God should take us up, as He will take the Jews, (greedy and grasping people though they are in the world today), and form them into a people who love one another: He does that with us too, who were hateful and hating. He makes us love one another.
JP In brethren dwelling together in unity the conditions are found, whether the numbers be small or large.
JT Each one should see to it that we are dwelling together in unity.
RSS How would you explain “Lay hold of eternal life”? 1 Timothy 6: 12.
JT It is inward energy exercised to enjoy as a present possession what you see to be yours by God’s gift. The passage adds, “to which thou hast been called”. 1 Timothy 6: 12.
FL “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”, and “he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”. Galatians 6: 7,8. It is clear that the thing is available and the way of it is to keep the flesh under, and to give place to the Spirit.
JP It is rather remarkable that the trouble, as to eternal life, in 1890 began in 1888 at Witney, when J.B.S. and F.E.R. took up the question of the conditions; that was the whole point.
Ques Has eternal life to do only with the earth?
JT It would so appear. God would introduce it where death has been. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”, (Genesis 2: 17) was the word to Adam, and he ate and died. It is a question of God reaching [p. 465] His end where apparently He has been defeated. He revives man and revives Israel.
FL He vindicates Himself and brings in life where death has been; that is not heaven.
JP “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life”. Romans 6: 23. That is the scripture that helped me.
Ques While it is on earth, yet it has a heavenly character, I suppose?
JT It is life in a Man out of death, but that Man is out of heaven. All that attaches to that Man is distinctly heavenly — all is tinged with “blue”.
FL J.N.D. spoke of that “out-of-the-world heavenly condition of relationship and being in which eternal life consists”.
JT We are already made to live, but we have also a heavenly portion which has nothing to do with God’s testimony as regards the earth. Here there had been apparent defeat through sin and death, but God has formed a righteous way of setting up man in life on earth. This is God’s victory. In sovereignty God has made Israel the centre of His counsels in Christ in regard to the earth, and so eternal life is seen in connection with them, but it is for all nations.
FL I should say that wherever there is the manifest testimony of the Holy Spirit in anointing and in fruitfulness to God, there is the evidence of eternal life.
JT Quite so; God is maintaining now in the assembly what He intends to bring out finally in Israel on earth.