GLORY CONFERRED ON THE BELIEVER
[p. 120] GLORY CONFERRED ON THE BELIEVER
Romans 8:28 - 30; Romans 9:23 - 26; John 17:20 - 23
I had in mind to speak about glory and particularly how it affects christians, the effect upon us now; the future is plainly spoken of in Scripture so that little need be said. We have the word in its peculiar force, “Our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory” (2 Corinthians 4:17). The idea of weight attaches to the thought; as we think of the value of a commodity the more regard there is for weight; so that, our affliction now, however heavy, is really light; none had more than Christ Himself. Take the apostle Paul, who calls it our momentary and light affliction! I have read these scriptures to bring in a little the purpose of God bearing on the matter and how glory is the one end, the end, God’s purpose at the beginning, and the glory with which He invests us at the end, “These also he has glorified”, that is to say, those who are the objects of His purpose. What I have in mind is to bring out that glory is needed to fill niches in the system, the divine system, in service; aside from it we should be awkward and misfits, aside from being glorified. It is said that “in his temple doth every one say, Glory!” (Psalm 29:9). I suppose we may carry it forward into the eternal realm of things; everything will reflect God, and that is glory, for the heavenly city is said to come down “having the glory of God” (Revelation 21:10).
What I have in mind is to work that out so that we may not be misfits or awkward in the position into which we are called, but work smoothly as of it characteristically, for God has in the great inauguration of His system, brought in something which He regards as His standard, and things must come up to that. That is His mark. When it says “three thousand souls” were added, the implication is manifest that they were equal to the position. The Spirit of God does not leave the subject until He tells us just what was there, that is to say, they were equal to the position and the position was great and glorious, one hundred and twenty persons each having a distinction, for it is great. “The crowd of names who were together” is a remarkable expression, as if they would need to be set in order for their glory to shine; each shone in his own glory, each had a glory, hence the crowd of names is according to God’s glory, and they were all together in one place, all together; that is glory too, not one was absent, and heaven commits itself to that. What was there was in keeping with what heaven did, so that the noise is heard: the noise out of heaven “filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues, as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them”, that is, they are all on the same footing in that connection. It is a glorious scene, that is the divine origin; it was a wonderful day, a wonderful time for heaven, much more, I believe, for heaven than for Jerusalem at that time. The work of God has been effecting admiration, admirers of that ever since, with true believers in Christ glorified; every true believer admires that, and they were brought into it. Three thousand were added, the stress is on adding, not who did it, but that they were added, so many; and then we are told what they did, how “they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers”. You might say there is not much in that; but there is a great deal in it when you consider the change it involved, in turning away from what they were connected with and taking on this new system of things that God had set up. They had to turn away. It was really turning away from one thing to another; that is, the other thing would mark the apostles,
[p. 122] they being the representatives of Christ in glory. They represented His authority, their teaching, their fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers, and then the Spirit of God does not leave us even with that, He goes on to give us a view, a beautiful picture, how they were together, “all that believed were together”. That is not the same position exactly as the first. The first is they were all together in one place, but now they are on another basis, meaning they are always together; in principle, as they go they go where the brethren were, “they came to their own company”, as it says in chapter 4; “their own”, to such as they call their own; they went there after they were let go; the earlier company was not their own. That is what we get in the beginning, and then in chapter 2 it says the Lord added; now He is doing it as if to honour what is there. He added such as should be saved, that is, such as are marked out in the thoughts of God to be saved, and that brings me back to what I have in mind in this chapter that in order to get a right view of the saints we must go back to the divine thought about them. “Those that were to be saved” implied previous thoughts; they were such, and the Lord had these in mind. He was working and it was not merely what He had, but what was intended He should get, that was the idea, and He was adding them to what was there; no incongruous material is suggested at all, they are in keeping with what was there. The Lord added to what was there; they were suited to it, that is the idea; any sort of material will not do, all incoming material is in keeping with what exists and what exists is glorious.
I would like to work these thoughts out, dear brethren, and one thing to be noted is that it is in view of the divine economy which is set up in love. That is another great thought, it is a love matter, that is, the One taken up to administer is loved.
“[p. 123] The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand” (John 3:35). Now in chapter 7 of John, it says “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”. The Spirit is in mind, but it is the Spirit of Christ glorified that is in mind; He was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. The great thought of glory enters into the gift of the Spirit, for indeed He is said to be the Spirit of glory, and not only that but it rests upon believers in certain circumstances so that he is the means here of effectuating glory in believers. John has a great deal to say about the word ‘glory’, and stresses much the “glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, as suggestive of what he has in mind, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth” (chapter 1:14), meaning that the bearing of it is towards the believer, and that his particular need in this world is in mind. It is all a question of effectuating the thought of God in the scene of need, so that the One that is seen is glorious, that is everything that is of account has glory, the “glory as of an only-begotten with a father” is “full of grace and truth”, full of it. These are initial thoughts in the divine economy in John’s gospel; love is the basis, but displayed in grace and truth as meeting need so as to bring about the divine thoughts. Grace first, then truth, and then the Son is loved and all things are given into His hand, and then an example in chapter 4 of how the thing works. He goes His way, as is said, “full of grace and truth”, all that transpires illustrating what it means, so that at the end of John 3 we have the statement, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, and then immediately the wonderful story in John 4 already alluded to, among many other remarkable things. That story is intended to exemplify the economy: what it really means is the working out that the Lord is full of grace and truth; it is exemplified at the well, “full of grace and truth”. He, in working that out, brings out who was there; and that is another thing, dear brethren, we want to keep clearly before us, with whom we have to do in this great matter. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink”, who it is. That is another great feature that stands out in the great economy, that the truth regarding the Person of Christ is built up in the subjects of grace; and so it was, even in His dealings with such a wicked person as the woman in John 4. God takes up such to show what He can do. The wonderful features were furnishings in the economy. It is wonderful how He can effect His thoughts, and God takes up such to show what He can do in spite of the most obstinate circumstances; what could be more unlikely with such material as He had before Him, and yet He was there, full of grace and truth. He was operating in an economy based on love, full of grace and truth. “The Father loves the Son”, but in the working out of it He is full of grace and truth, and hence the success of the story. The economy is successful, there is no mistake about it. No matter what are the external appearances of christianity the economy is successful, the result will show the infinite success of it. That He is full of grace and truth and is loved of the Father, is kept clearly before us. The Lord says to the woman, “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink”, that is, who it is that has come down so low, that is actually asking you, an outcast as it were, one having no place in society, asking you for a drink of water, who it is. That has all to be built into our souls, dear brethren, hence the exemplification of the economy, the result being more than successful in that woman. The Spirit there is brought out as a gift, but in chapter 7 it is the Spirit as received. Notice, the Spirit is to be received, for the truth is never effective until we have the idea of [p. 125] reception. The most perfect thoughts may be presented to us and admired; for example, “Never man spake thus, as this man speaks”, but the reception of the things shows its effectiveness: “But this he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive”. In chapter 4 it is given, but in chapter 7 it is “were about to receive”. It would be a historic matter that certain who believe should receive the Spirit. But what Spirit? The Spirit of Christ glorified, that is the Spirit sent down by Christ glorified; but “the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified”.
Well now, that brings me to another point, that divine thoughts and purposes are the background of what I am saying, and how God reaches the thought of glory in them so that what I have said about John 7 leads me to speak about the Spirit in Romans, how He comes in in Romans as shedding abroad the love of God in our hearts. The position is carefully selected by the Holy Spirit, it is “in our hearts”; the love of God is shed abroad there by the Holy Spirit. Now that, I believe, may be fitted in in Luke, the well-known chapter 15. The prodigal has reached the end there, and I can see as reading it from time to time that divine thoughts must underlie all; that is, the prior thoughts of God; He is always working from His own thoughts. What happened in the history of humanity enables the Lord to work out what He does in the parable, but He is thinking of divine thoughts, that is, what is lost is valuable. The sheep is lost — it is valuable; the piece of money is lost — it is valuable; the son is lost — he is valuable. It is the divine thought of things, and the more we get back to that, dear brethren, the more assuredly it will be in our souls; as it is said in Romans 9:23, “vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, us”. Now notice that, “Before prepared for glory”; they were in the mind of God. There is not [p. 126] one, who is a christian, who was not in the mind of God in this way, “before prepared”. God had us in His mind and He intends that His thoughts should be worked out. What can be more interesting to God, or to those who come into the gain of His thoughts, than to follow the course of the working out of things and to understand the motive behind the working, what is in the mind of God? So the father of the prodigal is said to cover the son with kisses, the returning one. That all refers to his prior thoughts about him; that son had a place, and there were prior thoughts in regard of him, prior affections too. Well, if the father kisses, as in the parable, we see it is God, and if He kisses there is something to convey, there is some warmth in the kiss, some power to convey what is behind the kiss. There can be no doubt that the Spirit of God is included. Well, it is through the Spirit of God that everything is operated down here, all these personal transactions, so that all is now a question of the Spirit of God. The three Persons are in the economy; the Spirit is the feeling side of the position, not that any One of the divine Persons does not feel. We have in Scripture the idea of the Spirit given to us, the Spirit as a Person given to the saints, but then we have also the idea of God giving us part in His Spirit, and having part in the Spirit is the most intimate way of apprehending God. By His Spirit we get the inner thoughts of God, if I may speak thus, the depths of feelings, “depths of God”, as it is called! (1 Corinthians 2:10). The Spirit searches “the depths of God”, the inner thoughts of God; we get that in the Spirit. In the economy of christianity the Spirit is down here; He is immediate in everything, even in new birth, in sealing, in anointing. He is immediate; that is to say, God is dealing with us in the most intimate way, in the most feeling way so as to cause us to feel; hence if the Father kisses, it says “he covered him with kisses”, he kissed him ardently; well, that must be by the Spirit. I am not overstressing the truth at all, because in the economy the Spirit is here. It is God here by the Spirit, and here immediately in that way to do with us directly, and if it be a question of expressing love, if He feels compassionately with us, and He does too, the Spirit makes intercession for us, He intercedes for us. If God is to make His love felt, to make it known, if this is to be a real love matter in my heart, the Spirit is the medium of that. Love is put there by the Spirit which is given to us. Well now, I am sure the prodigal was right to carry the gift of love of the Spirit into the kiss; love is shed abroad by the Spirit; this enters into the kiss, for the kiss must be felt, and it is a real thing with God, God is doing it Himself, and it is the investiture of love, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us”. We are invested with love. Well, is that not investing with glory? I think it is; I know it is. We are invested with glory. It is from the divine side, but God has seen to it; He has operated in the most intimate way by His Spirit and there is feeling, and in the investment with the best robe it is as if God would say, ‘I am going to make the very best out of it, my best thoughts, my eternal thoughts are to be worked out in you’. What great things these are! Is there any one of us who is isolating himself from God? He says, as it were, ‘I am taking you up and I am going to make My very best thoughts work out in you and it is going to be a festival matter’; so that the best robe is to be brought forth, He says, “Bring out the best robe”. The bondmen are asked to do that, they are thoroughly in sympathy with the system of things. We are brought into a living system of things where there is love, where there is subjection to God and readiness to carry out His thoughts. “Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it”; it is all there, the divine side to bring out the best for me if I am to be the subject of God’s operations, His very best thoughts. And he is invested with a ring, and that shows him set up before God; so that you can see how that person not only is to be brought into the house, but the fact of the matter is he represents the divine thought of christianity, which is to be built up in our minds. It is largely a question of getting right thoughts and the Holy Spirit working them out in us; that is the idea. We get the house mentioned, but it is not said that he is brought in; the thing is there, the divine thought is there. If I get the divine thought, that is the thing; it is the very best of God’s thoughts, and that is now here on earth, for Luke 15 is not a question of heaven, it is here, the present working out of glory and there is the music and dancing all going with that. Well, you can see, dear brethren, if I am to be in that I need to be glorified. I hope to show it more completely in John 17. I am speaking now about God reaching His end: “All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to purpose”, and then it goes on to say, “Whom he has predestinated, these also he has called; and whom he has called, these also he has justified; but whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”, that is, the whole thing is there. This is what He is working out here, He is working out glory, a system of glory, and everyone is to be brought into that and to fit into it; it has been invested with glory and I am to fit into it.
Then in Romans 9 we have the thought of a vessel, bringing it down to each believer, brought down here, as it says, “Us, whom he has also called, not only from amongst the Jews, but also from amongst the nations”, even ‘us’, who were once at a distance. He is speaking of persons reached, existing there, persons to whom Paul was writing in Rome, even ‘us’. One loves to take these thoughts in, how the [p. 129] apostle would impress it upon the Roman christians; he had not been there, but you can understand the christians reading his letter. I suppose they would read it many times; no doubt they were called together to read it; it had evidently been carried to them by Phoebe, a worthy person. How glorious she was! How she travelled I do not know, but she was glorious. He speaks of her in the most respectful terms as a sister; she was a servant of the assembly at Cenchrea; she was a noble sort of person, not only in her status of life but spiritually; she was a noble sort of person and was commended too by the apostle; she evidently carried this letter. How she would value and treasure it! I certainly should if I had the responsibility or charge of it; there was not another epistle like it. What a treasure it was! That she was invested with what she was given, is manifest; she carried it to Rome and we can understand what a time they would have, dear brethren, for the saints would be called together to read this beautiful epistle. I would have liked to have been there to listen to the first reading of it. How it moved the heart of the apostle in his desire for the saints whom he knew there! He knew a good many there, but did not know them all, and as he comes to this 24th verse he says, “Vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, us”.
One can understand a spiritual brother reading that letter and how he would say, ‘Now we are together, dear brethren, what do you think of that?’ What do you feel about that? Even us, we ourselves, aforetime prepared for glory; God has been thinking of us and He is going to set forth the best of His glory, the riches of His glory, as it is. He knows us before, but we are here where He is seeking us, and He is going to set forth the riches of His glory in His operations, so that He has us standing out glorious; you see “whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”. The assembly is in that way formed, but Paul does not go very far on that line. He does not go far on the road but he is certainly preparing the ground. There is one vein running through Romans, the value of the saints, what they are to God, what He thought of them, and how He is making everything to work together for good. They are vessels of mercy afore prepared for glory. God has had them much in His mind, and the vein that runs through is how we are to respect the brethren. I have often said, and others too, that you never love a person you do not respect; it is a simple matter.
The apostle salutes the saints many times in the last chapter; bringing in Phoebe first, he begins with her, and then he goes on to a brother and his wife, and runs down the list saying “Salute”, “Salute”. I should have looked round and said, ‘Is Aquila here tonight?’ How much he would have missed if he were absent from the reading of that! If I had been living in Rome I should have thought more of Aquila than I used to, and certainly more of Priscilla. They represent the marital idea amongst us, they only had one neck, they staked their neck for Paul; that is, they were a married couple; marriage has a great place in the testimony, and these two were united in regard to the testimony; they staked their neck for Paul. I can understand a person, perhaps some young believer in Rome who had never heard of Aquila and Priscilla, who did not even know of Paul, he would certainly regard them more definitely than hitherto, and that is the intent, dear brethren. The Spirit of God would magnify the brethren in our eyes that we might respect them, and as respecting them love them. And so, as I have said, we have here vessels “before prepared for glory”. Then the apostle goes on (verse 26) to speak about them, quoting from the prophet Hosea, “And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my [p. 131] people, there shall they be called Sons of the living God” (chapter 1:10). Maybe this comes with more force in this city than others; that is, in the place where we have been justified, we have been glorified. It is worth the while to go through things with God, but how glorious that here “shall they be called Sons of the living God”! What does it mean? I must respect them, the sons of the living God. When I think of the Jews today and their history, what pressure has come upon them, in a certain sense well merited — not that I would say anything much, for the meanness of human nature is in me just the same, only the circumstances have not been gone through — but meanness is there, unspeakable meanness in human nature, and opprobrium has been rolled in upon them from the outset until this very time; yet God’s eye is upon them where all this has been poured out upon them. They are not regarded as God’s people, but there, in that place, “They shall be called Sons of the living God”. What dignity, dear brethren, is seen! As I see that, my thoughts change about the brethren, I begin to see that where I despised them God has set them up there in dignity. That is what He has worked out and He would work out glory in us; all things are working for glory, that glory might shine in the place where dishonour was, through the “Sons of the living God”.
Now that leads me to speak about John 17 which is the final and greatest thought. The chapter is full of glory, this wonderful prayer to the Father, the Lord Jesus lifting up His eyes to heaven. There is no more glorious scene than that conceivable, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, spoken of at the beginning. Think of what this was to heaven. Luke gives us His praying at the Jordan; he gives that side, John does not. As the Lord was praying the heavens were opened; think of what heaven saw, the inner movements of that heart of [p. 132] God; as He was praying, having been baptised, “all the people having been baptised”, Jesus coming in last. The divine eye would and did see them all, for Jerusalem and all Judaea came, and all the countryside came, a remarkable movement. Jesus came from Galilee, He came from the despised spot to be baptised, and all the people being baptised, “and Jesus having been baptised and praying”, directly the heaven opened, “and a voice came out of heaven” and addressed Him. What a scene of glory that was! Could any see it? Could any understand it? I have often thought of that scene and what any devoted person, being there from Jerusalem or from Galilee, when returning would say they saw, ‘Oh! what a day we have had today!’ What a day it was, the heaven opened and spoke! What a day it was! What glory! “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight” (Luke 3:21,22). He was found. The divine eye had no doubt passed over all the others. Some of us were speaking about that lately, as in Jesse’s house, Samuel’s eye passed over the seven sons of Jesse and he had to say ‘No, no’. Here is one Man who has come from Galilee and He is baptised. He is the last one. David was the last, he was hardly thought of. John has to say, ‘There is One in your midst, whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose. He is preferred before me, great as you think I am, He is preferred before me’. John knew, he tells us he knew. What, a scene it was for him! The heaven was opened, and the voice came, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, and so here, what a scene of glory opens up to us as the Son lifts up His eyes to heaven! It is said, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father”. We do not have that in the Jordan; the background of the prayer here is the chapters that precede. The words of Jesus illuminate our souls as to the place as we peruse these chapters,
[p. 133] and it would be worth while to do it. May God grant that we may do so, in order that we may understand the Father and the Son, and our place in Their minds. What a place we have in Their minds! He lifted up His eyes to heaven and He begins to speak; He speaks about glory. He tells His Father He has glorified Him on the earth, and He asks the Father to glorify Him “with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was”, and He asks Him also to glorify them all. Think of such thoughts being brought to our ears, dear brethren; but now He comes to this matter of glory conferred on the saints, “And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”. He said that. He did not pray for the apostles only, “but also for those who believe on me through their word”, those the Father gave to Him; and He goes on to say “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them”, and then He adds, “That they may be one, as we are one”. My purpose in reading this is to point out that aside from glory, being invested with glory, there cannot be unity according to God. Then you may say, ‘What is this glory?’ Well, I have been speaking of glory in Romans, but then what is this glory the Lord has in mind? It is that the saints should be one, and one according to the highest standard, that is, as He says, “That they may be one, as we are one”, that is the standard. Think of the glory that radiated between the Father and the Son! What glory there was! What perfect unity in that glory! Glory is really the outshining of what persons are, and the glory radiated as the Father looked into those eyes, the Son lifting up His eyes to heaven and speaking about glory. Now He comes to the saints in regard of unity, having unity in His mind, and He says, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one”. Well, what is this that He could give to us? The prophet [p. 134] Hosea speaks, and Paul cites it, of the place where we are said not to be God’s people; it is a very trying, testing thing to be regarded in that way; to be stripped of our privileges, for it to be said of us, ‘not of God’ as we say, having lost assembly status. It is a very testing thing, but how glorious to be honoured of God and honoured in this way, “There shall they be called Sons of the living God”, where they were dishonoured, where they were despised, where they were refused their privileges, where they had lost them, they are now addressed as “Sons of the living God”. How God has set us up in victory, called us the sons of the living God. It refers to the position down here in testimony; it is a life of testing here, it is a question of life, the sons of the living God. And this fits in, I believe, with “the glory which thou hast given me”. Well, on the banks of the Jordan, the voice was “Thou art my beloved Son”. Why that should be said to Him, few could know. It is a question of glory conferred, but sonship was there, of course. But why should it be the Son on whom glory is conferred? It is publicly conferred upon Him, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”. Well, the Lord has given that to us, dear brethren. It is not only that we are “called Sons of the living God”, but we are sons of God according to the heavenly calling; we belong to heaven, for sonship is heavenly as regards us. He is bringing many sons to glory; think of that, to glory! He conferred it, as it were, on Him, not that it was not there, it was there, as He had said at the age of twelve, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49). That was the sense of sonship. He knew it was there, but then the time came, “Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old” (Luke 3:23), and the thing is conferred, it is glory conferred. What a great thing it was! The Scriptures had accredited it to the Messiah, but now [p. 135] it is openly conferred upon Him, and on the ground of what was found in Him. It is a thought with regard to what was there, the actual thing was there, response to God; that is what I understand. So He says, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one”, as looking up to His Father in infinite unity in what They were doing. “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). It is a question of the unity down here, and of glory conferred, glory given, “The glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one”.
That is all I have to say about this wonderful chapter, but my thought is to bring us into practical unity, and that it is in glory being given that we are glorified, that the whole domain into which we are brought is glorious. We do not want to be out of it, we do not want to appear in any way as awkward, as unsuited to the place. The prodigal, as we have often said, was fitted for it; the idea of the house was in him, he was kissed, he was robed, he was ringed and shod, he was the whole divine idea of glorification of the believer. May the Lord bless the word.