CHRIST IN THE BELIEVER (2)
CHRIST IN THE BELIEVER (2)
JT We were dwelling on John the baptist this morning, as illustrating a believer in whom Christ is in a sacrificial sense. We now have before us another phase of the subject, namely, Christ known as a prophet and then as “the Christ”. The Lord told the woman He was the Christ, and she, speaking of Him to the men of the city says, “Is not he the Christ?”. She had no doubt in her mind and it was effective in her testimony of Him.
It is to be observed that John the baptist is carried forward to this section, to the end of chapter 3, so that he links on in his testimony with what we find in this chapter. The administrative thought is introduced. In the end of chapter 3 we get, “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”, so that the divine economy is really in mind in what is developed in this chapter, the economy into which divine Persons have come, the Father, the Son and the Spirit.
John’s testimony culminates in chapter 3, where he says, “He must increase, but I must decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who has his origin in the earth is of the earth, and speaks as of the earth. He who comes out of heaven is above all, and what he has seen and has heard, this he testifies; and no one receives his testimony”. And there is added, “He that has received his testimony has set to his seal that God is true; for he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives not the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. In this passage the baptist’s testimony merges in the evangelist’s, and we have the full divine economy brought into view, and administration is because “the Father loves the Son”. Love is a great motive and an active motive, so that we have developments in chapter 4 in the full light and setting of the divine economy, and hence bearing directly on christianity. John the baptist led up to this.
The woman of Samaria is the next example in our subject. She represents this to us as belonging to this dispensation. The fact that the Lord raises with her the question as to who He was is essential. John the baptist had known this; He did not have to raise the question with him. She did not know, so that He says, “If thou knewest the gift of God”, (that enters into the administrative side, divine giving) “and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him”. So that she needed to learn everything, the gift of God, and who administered that gift, and anything that she would ask. So that she is set out as representative of this dispensation, in that way. The economy is so rich and great and wonderfully furnished to meet her need. So that we ask and receive what we need.
JR She sets forth the believer requiring adjustment to be brought into righteousness.
JT That is how the matter stands. She has to learn everything. First, what she is herself, then the gift of God and who it is there conversing with her, asking drink of her.
LLC Do you think that in the request of the Lord there was a suggestion that it is possible for us to satisfy the heart of God? “Give me to drink”, He says.
JT I suppose that would be in her mind afterwards, that this glorious Person had at one time asked a drink of her. It links on with the idea of divine seeking, which we forget too much; that we should seek is obvious, but we forget that God seeks and [p. 260] asks.
SR She asked for the Spirit without fully knowing what she was asking for when she said, “Give me this water, that I may not thirst”.
JT Quite so. The Lord had knowledge of it. He enlarged on it when He said, “Whosoever drinks of the water which I shall give him shall never thirst for ever, but the water which I shall give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”. Then the woman says, “Give me this water”. She asked for it according to what He said it was, and we know this must be the Spirit. These two sides, that is, divine asking and human asking, meet here, divine need and human need. In christianity all this comes out. The highest and greatest things are embodied in christianity, in the light of the Father. “The Father loves the Son”. That is the background and it is christianity that is in mind. God is known as the Father in His giving, and as loving the Administrator, the One in whose hand He has put everything.
JR Open up a little the thought of the Spirit in the believer as living water.
JT Well, it is for deliverance, satisfaction spiritually, and lifting us out of the things of human nature, which in this case had evidently proved ineffective. She had drunk deeply into the natural and that had to be exposed; as applied morally it had to be exposed. But exposure is not enough. We need the positive power of the Spirit to lift us out of that. The exposure brought out something in her that the Lord knew was there. She says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. Exposure brought that out.
SWR Is there any spiritual thought about Jacob’s well?
JT Jacob and Joseph come in here, Jacob giving to his son Joseph. It is the gift side. “The Father loves the Son”. What is said in chapter 3 is brought [p. 261] forward, for Jacob loved Joseph. Joseph became the great administrator in the world in those days, but Jacob loved him, and so whatever the well meant, it would carry on the thought of the Father and the Son. I think that is what we ought to keep before us. The administrative position and how it is founded in love, and all that works out is of the highest character, the richness of it, the very best. It is a question of love.
JR It is precious to carry on the thought of the work progressing, as you were speaking of it this morning, moving on from one step to another. This certainly seems to be a step in advance.
JT It is clearly so. John the baptist stresses the sacrificial side, which we have stated fully in chapter 3, and it is the outcome of love, “God so loved”, and “Thus must the Son of man be lifted up”. These are exigencies of God. God’s love requires that this must happen. This is very solemn ground. Love is the leading thought in chapters 3 and 4.
OL I would ask in regard of this, “If thou knewest the gift of God”, if the Lord had in mind the love of God in giving, as in the new covenant?
JT This is higher than the covenant. It is a question of the divine economy involving christianity. It is “God so loved the world”, not His special love for His people, that is for Israel. It is His love for the world which is in mind in chapter 3. “The Father loves the Son, and has given all things to be in his hand”. The gift is commensurate with that. It is greater than the new covenant really. It is a question of the dispensation, what God is as Father, not the idea of the covenant. The idea of the covenant is, ‘I shall be God to them and they shall be a people to Me’. Here it is a universal thought involving christianity in the fulness of it, as standing in relation to other dispensations, the past dispensation and the [p. 262] coming one. This chapter has in mind the present dispensation. So it is a question of the believer having Christ in him in this setting.
RHK Do you get the thought of authority in Christ coming in? In John 17 it says, “Father ... glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee; as thou hast given him authority over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal”. It is the One who has revealed God.
JT That is right. Authority over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him. That is what is in mind as regards authority. Chapter 4 has eternal life in view, but it is something existent into which the believer is brought by spiritual power; chapter 17 speaks of eternal life given by Christ as in authority. What is stressed here is not authority, it is gift. In chapter 17 Christ giving eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him is also gift, but in chapter 4 it is living water. It brings out that the present dispensation is marked by gift, the economy into which love enters, “The Father loves the Son”.
HF Would you say that God gives the best here, the gift of the Spirit?
JT Quite so. “If thou knewest the gift of God”. “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). The more I understand what God’s gift is, and the One who administers it, the more ready I am to ask for it. “Ask, and it shall be given to you” (Matthew 7:7).
RK Would you say love is the basis of this economy? There is no breakdown, the woman is secured.
JT Quite. Love never fails; there is no breakdown. Then think of that quality pervading the whole matter. How affecting it is, how rich [p. 263] the position!
HEF Do you mean that what the Lord has effected in this one woman He is going to effect in all things the Father has given into His hand?
JT It is what the dispensation is. It is the administrative side here. The Father has given all things into His Son’s hand because He loves Him, and then the Son comes so low as to ask of this outcast, this woman. Well then, what may I not expect now? Whatever I ask. “If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him”. It is the liberating effect of the economy.
Ques Is the Father’s giving all things into the hand of the Son relative to the assembly being given to Jesus by the Father?
JT Well, we have not come to that here. Giving things into His hand is an administrative matter. It is not the giving of something to Him as a gift yet, but that He is the Administrator of what God gives generally. That is the idea.
BB In the beginning of this conversation between the Lord and the woman He asked of her something she was not able to give, and He introduced His side of giving. What would you gather from that? “Give me to drink”, He said, but she could not meet that.
JT Well, she did not actually meet it as far as we can see, but the Lord did ask for a drink in a literal sense. His request brought out the whole position and led up to what He had in mind. Her mind was full of natural thoughts. We have been speaking about the ministry being beclouded by the minister considering himself instead of eliminating himself. Now our relations to one another in divine things are very much beclouded because we retain natural feelings. “How dost thou, being a Jew, ask to drink of me who am a Samaritan woman? for Jews have no intercourse with Samaritans”. Her mind was full of this crystallised side of things which [p. 264] was utterly foreign to the one the Lord was introducing; nevertheless what the woman said enabled the Lord to open up and to dissipate all the darkness that possessed her. National, racial and religious feelings as seen in her, are utterly inimical to the dispensation, the wonderful economy that God has come into. It is a question of God loving the Son and giving all things into His hand, and one coming into such an order of things and getting all he asks for. It is wonderful how clearly this position is set out here.
JR It is far better to ask than assume to have the thing and not have it.
JT Yes, why should we not ask? But ask the right Person.
LAMR Would you say there is no limit to what may be received?
JT Exactly, the giving is infinite. Why not ask then? The Lord says that one knowing the gift of God would ask, that is, if you let the light of the economy into your soul you will ask.
Ques Would you ask for the Holy Spirit?
JT Certainly, if I did not have Him. The Lord says expressly, “How much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13).
SWR Is it possible for a believer not to have the Holy Spirit?
JT It is possible. Later Samaritans believed, but they did not immediately get the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:14 - 17). Philip had preached to them and they believed, but they did not have the Holy Spirit. What do you think about that?
JFW Well, the question was asked, if it was possible for a believer not to have the Holy Spirit.
J.T. What do you say now?
JFW I agree with what you [p. 265] said.
JT I hope everyone else here does; largely that is what such meetings as this are for, to get the matters clear. If there is any cloudiness in our minds as to the Spirit the Lord would clear it away.
JR One feels we need more spiritual power; we need to realise the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Power seems to be needed. In principle the woman gets it, having the living water.
JT Yes, it is stated in the fullest way here. The water Christ gives is to be in the believer “a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life”.
JR Does it mean a continual source of refreshment from the Holy Spirit that we may never thirst again?
JT Yes; the Spirit in the one who drinks is a fountain of water springing up. The allusion is to the Spirit coming into the believer, taking hold of and occupying his affections, or automatic organs, so that He operates of Himself. It is a condition in the believer by which he enjoys eternal life. The Spirit operates in us apart from our minds at times. The fountain is automatic, so to speak, “springing up”.
Ques Would you say the woman’s state was the outcome of the fear of death?
JT It is not the fear of death here. It is sinful relations. This woman is said to have had five husbands, and then she had one who was not her husband. Evidently she had been legally married five times and now she has a man illegally. The Lord’s remark was searching, and that is what affected her. She does not speak about what the Lord said to her of the well in speaking to the men. She speaks about Him and His telling her of all things she had ever done. That is what affected her and why she says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. Her recognition of Him in this way is the ground on which the Lord deigns to speak to her about worship. She was ready for exposure and no one gets on spiritually unless [p. 266] they are. God will bring all things to light; “Man’s spirit is the lamp of Jehovah, searching all the inner parts of the belly” (Proverbs 20:27). That is what affected her, “a man who told me all things that I had ever done”.
OL Is this springing up into eternal life suggestive of the affections of the heart flowing Godward? This woman’s affections had been placed on natural things but they are to be diverted.
JT That is exactly the point. She had been drinking at a corrupt source, but now her affections are to be taken hold of by the Spirit of God. It is the taking hold of the automatic organs by the Spirit, which organs are to be used for the working out of spiritual affections. The Lord breathing into the disciples is another thought. Here it is the water, the lower affections being in mind, and these affections in her being purified are to be diverted into elevated spiritual channels. Instead of her seeking satisfaction in a corrupt world her affections are to be diverted to the world above. “The path of life is upwards for the wise” (Proverbs 15:24).
OL Her affections would flow Godward, worship is produced.
JT That is the connection here.
HS Would you say it was precious to the Lord when she said, “Give me this water”? Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for thee” (2 Kings 2:9).
JT She asked for the water that she might not thirst again. Then the Lord says, “Go, call thy husband”. If you are to get this, the moral question has to come up. We have to judge our whole lives; our whole course has to be opened up to us. It is a most important thing that our whole responsible life has to come under review of our consciences.
JR Is it not important that in our earlier days we should face this exposure? There are many things [p. 267] among young believers that have to be settled in order that our whole bodies may be full of light.
JT That is the idea. One’s body is to be the vessel. Christ is to be in this woman as the Christ, and in that way He can use her as a vessel. She had brought a vessel out to the well but she left it. She would see what the teaching implies. I am to be the vessel, but in view of this my whole life is to come up and be settled, whatever it has been. That is why the Lord said, “Call thy husband”, because that is where she could be touched, as to what her life had been.
JFW Does this correspond with “God bringeth back again that which is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15)?
JT Certainly. The Lord in perfect skill knew that if He asked for her husband her history would have to come up. He knew all about it.
HF Is this woman who had sought to gratify her own heart now to gratify the heart of God?
JT That is right. She drank deeply into the corrupt world. The Lord knew that and He would have her judge her whole history, and that is really the cause of difficulty with us. We do not go the whole way in reviewing our whole history before God and judging it.
HF Is it to secure in her what is for divine pleasure that she is exposed?
JT Quite. That is what the Lord had in mind in securing her, but she must be purified, “Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth”, Peter says (1 Peter 1:22). When a believer is seeking fellowship the question as to one’s husband or one’s wife has to come up. You may be sure the remark, “Go, call thy husband”, or it may be your wife, will bring up a lot of history that has to be settled before we can righteously take part in the things of God.
JR Talking about receiving the Spirit, would you say one had to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, His [p. 268] death, resurrection and ascension and entering into glory, before one could receive the Spirit?
JT Well, that in a way is right, but the question to the men at Ephesus was, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?” (Acts 19:2). They had believed, but what they believed was imperfect, but still it was believing, the word is used. We cannot just say how much they believed, because it is a question of God giving His Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is not an automatic thing. It is God’s act and must be left with God, and hence the idea of asking enters into it.
BB So it is right to ask a person who professes to be a believer, ‘What do you believe?’ Quite so. As to the case at Ephesus, we read, “And finding certain disciples, he said to them, Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed? And they said to him, We did not even hear if the Holy Spirit was come. And he said, To what then were ye baptised? And they said, To the baptism of John. And Paul said, John indeed baptised with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on him that was coming after him, that is, on Jesus. And when they heard that, they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus. And Paul having laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them”.
Now all this has to be taken into account if we are to be instructed in what we are now engaged with. God reserves His own right in regard to the gift of the Spirit. That is, we cannot say it is an automatic thing, “the Holy Spirit also, which God has given to those that obey him” (Acts 5:32). That is important. Here it is, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?”. It is a subsequent thing to faith; it is not automatic. So in the epistle to Ephesians which refers to this very scripture in Acts 19, the apostle says, “In whom also, having believed,
[p. 269] ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise”. It is not exactly what ye believed, but according to the order one, two and three, of believing first. Giving the Spirit is a divine prerogative.
BB You mentioned “those that obey him”. What would you term obeying Him?
JT Well, it is being entirely subject to God in Christ. Anyone self-willed in his course has no moral right to say he has the Holy Spirit, because it is given to those who obey God.
SWR Is it obedience as referred to in Psalm 139:23,24, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any grievous way in me; and lead me in the way everlasting”? Light follows that obedience.
JT Quite. It is really an attitude of mind. I have to be subject to God in Christ. The Holy Spirit comes in on that line. He never comes in to support our wills.
AHn Would you say the Lord has to expose this woman to bring before her what she needs? He could go no further with her, and she could ask no more questions until this matter had been exposed.
JT That is right. The moral question had to come up. She wanted to get the water He spoke so wonderfully about, but her whole life has to come up first. She understood. She says, “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done”. She understood the import of the Lord’s remarks. What we have to see is that the woman is becoming spiritual. So she leaves her waterpot, saying in effect, ‘I see my body is to be a vessel, and the Lord is to use that vessel’.
AFMc Is not this in that way a perfect example of what you have before you, the body being dead on account of sin?
JT That is what I think we should see. Christ is in her, and if Christ is in her, her body is dead.
[p. 270] She is dead to all these old propensities and influences, and what is the secret of it? She has judged herself. The Lord has exposed her whole life to her, and she has judged it. Think of the Lord taking hold of a woman like that to use her! No matter what comes up, as soon as I participate in what is administered, and get the benefit of it, I become part of it. She is administering here. She goes to the men and tells them about Christ; that is having part in the administration which the Father has put in the hand of the Son.
Ques Is it possible to have the Spirit without knowing the value of it?
JT I think so. The Spirit may be in us in that sense, as in the case of the woman in 2 Kings 4: “What hast thou in the house?” the prophet says. He is raising the question typically as to having the Spirit and not using it. He directs her how to use it.
HF Does it correspond with Romans 12, presenting the body a living sacrifice to God?
JT That is what we should see in Romans 8, “the body is dead on account of sin, but the Spirit life on account of righteousness”. You see that is the principle here. She moves on living lines, in recognition of the Lord’s words, using her body, and it is immune from the corrupt influences of the men of the city. Her body is dead. She could speak to them of Christ and in power, so that she is living, she is connected with a living system and presenting her body a living sacrifice. It is a priestly thought, and she understands it.
Rem Your members are the instruments of righteousness.
JT Exactly.
Ques Do you not think that as soon as I believe in Christ, the One into whose hand the Father has given everything, I become a vessel?
JT That is what is meant. She acts of herself [p. 271] here, but the working of the truth is clear. Immediately she goes and tells the men of Christ and the effect of His service on her.
Rem It is very encouraging for us to take that place, the place of complete self-judgment and service in testimony.
JT The Lord has need of vessels like that. It is a question of the vessel. She had brought her waterpot but she does not use it, because the thought is applied to herself; it is Christ in her. She is a vessel for the Lord’s use. If Christ is in me, my body is dead, the Spirit is life in me in view of righteousness.
HS She believes in her heart and confesses now Jesus as the Christ.
JT Quite. She has come to see that He is the Christ. She believed that, and she affected the men by her testimony. They come to the Lord because of what she says. But she does not become a party leader; they do not set her up to be a woman preacher. She would not have that; she was a proper kind of vessel. Any woman who formally preaches is taking herself out of the Lord’s hands. This woman is simply a vessel: she goes and brings the men to the Lord, and then they say, “We have heard him ourselves”. She would like that; a true vessel in the Lord’s service rejoices as Christ becomes known. The men acquire an increased knowledge of Him, for they say, “We know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world”.
HS What joy all this would be to the heart of Christ!
JT Quite so. The Samaritans asked Him to abide with them and He stayed there two days. A place had been made for Him. That is all very excellent. It shows how this works out in a believer, how as the truth is received it spreads to others [p. 272] through him.
AHn Three times she addresses him as “Sir”.
JT She is respectful. It is a sign of the work of God where young persons are respectful and reverential.
JR In connection with what you were alluding to just now, in cases of dissension would you also look for self-judgment to come in with recovery? This moral question has to be faced and settled.
JT Certainly. Very often it is left unsettled, and old ways are resumed, causing revival of the old trouble. In such cases it is a question of assembly material, thus all the facts have to come up. As in the case of this woman, previous history has to come up. In her it is a question of purity, her being purified by faith. I come into the dispensation by faith, on that principle.
SWR How do I purge myself from vessels to dishonour? “If therefore one shall have purified himself from these ... he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master” (2 Timothy 2:21).
JT First it is, “Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity”, then purging ourselves from vessels to dishonour, and then we are to “pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. The woman had judged her unholy associations and now she has the moral power to go and tell the men about Christ. Some might ridicule her but that would not affect her, she had moral power in her soul. The real judgment of one’s life involves moral power in the soul. The Spirit supports you in self-judgment so that you can go to persons whom you knew before in moral power to speak to them about Christ.
SWR How would you explain that scripture which says, “Every one that has heard from the Father himself, and has learned of him, comes to me” (John 6:45)?
[p. 273] JT The Lord links them up in movement towards Himself with the Father in chapter 6, and of course we can introduce it here. After working in this poor soul and attracting her to Himself, she calls Him “Sir”, and she says, “I see that thou art a prophet”. That is a fine effect of the truth. It was because He gave her her history, He exposed her to herself; the woman thus learns that He is a prophet. In Corinthians the prophetic ministry searches one through and through, so that he falls down and worships God, acknowledging that “God is indeed amongst you”, and that enters into this chapter.
BB Would you connect it with the scripture which says, “Grief according to God works repentance” (2 Corinthians 7:10)?
JT Well, it is granted of God, also the result of His work; new birth underlies all this. We have new birth in chapter 3, and of course the teaching of it underlies chapter 4.
BB Is it the thought of the Christ? “He shall perform all my pleasure” (Isaiah 44:28).
JT That is what she had in her heart, and it is remarkable that that is the very thing Philip preached when he came down to Samaria (Acts 8:5). His preaching really links on with this woman’s conversion, and John the baptist links up with this woman; his testimony links right on to this section. Her history is the continuance of the truth entering into the present dispensation. The Spirit of God takes her into account as representative of this dispensation: the Father and the Son, and the gift of God, and the greatness of the Person who administers that gift. It is Christ who is doing all the divine pleasure, and the woman comes into this. She is doing something, too, and becomes part of the administration.
HS He is a great Deliverer. He delivered her from Jacob in the sense in which she regarded him, and Jacob’s well.
JT [p. 274] She is completely delivered from all that had adversely influenced her. That is the point, and now she is a vessel for this new dispensation. Christ is in her, and she witnessed of Him as “the Christ”. You see she must have spoken feelingly to the men, as they were affected by what she said.
HS As if she said, “Thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
OL Would you say that the Lord is securing this woman’s affections, not so much that she may be taken ultimately to glory, but that she may be in this world a testimony to what God is?
JT Well, it is the thought that she is a vessel here. What a word this is for all of us! As coming into the benefits of the economy I become part of it, and I should shine in my own sphere as a vessel for His use, and if I am to be that, I must be delivered from everything that is holding me. I must judge it if I am to be a vessel Christ uses here.
OL That position brings out the work of God in a place where Christ has been rejected.
JT That is right. Take Saul of Tarsus. He was the right man to make a vessel for the administration and now he is part of it, so much so, that the administration of the gospel is given to him. Yet he was the leading sinner, trying to break up all that was for God in this world. What a triumph that was!
OL Was that the effect on the man who was told to take up his bed and walk, that he had power to do so?
JT So long as my circumstances hold me I am not available to Christ. I must be superior to them, I must carry them.
BB Is there any difference between Christ as the vessel, and Jesus as the Man?
JT Jesus is usually the Man. The word means ‘Jehovah is Saviour’. It designates Him as Man,
[p. 275] the Saviour (Matthew 1:21). It is the name by which He is known generally through the gospels. Christ is the ‘anointed’ One, the Man taken on by God for His use, the Man after His own heart, and the woman had this in mind. He told her expressly that He was the Christ. He said to her, “I who speak to thee am he”.
HS So that she is a vessel to honour here, “sanctified, serviceable to the Master” (2 Timothy 2:21).
JT Quite, and her service is effective. Paul says, “I have espoused you unto one man” (2 Corinthians 11:2). She has now one Man instead of six. This is a great deliverance, her heart being purified by faith. She is now “to be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead” (Romans 7:4), to bring forth fruit to God. It will be understood that the truth is applied only in principle, and anticipatively; redemption was yet future.
SWR In this sense she has tasted sonship?
JT Yes. She is actually coming into the good of the economy as unfolded in this section. Now she sees she is part of it, enjoying the gift in principle, has part in it, and is handing it on to others that they might have part in it too.
AFMc Would you say she corresponds with John the baptist in this way? When he spoke of the Lord his disciples left him and went to Jesus, and these men leave the woman and go to Him.
JT Exactly. In both cases they are not party leaders; they do not make themselves centres. Both in John’s case and hers, the persons who get light go to Jesus. It is a sure evidence that in service I am not thinking of myself if I point souls to Jesus.
BB Why did the Lord say to Saul of Tarsus, “I am Jesus”? Why did he not say, ‘I am Christ’?
JT I think to call Saul’s attention to the kind of people he had been persecuting. Going into a brother’s house to arrest him he would find the Spirit of Jesus there. The Lord would say to him in that way, ‘The kind of people you have been persecuting are just Myself’. He was calling attention to the body, the saints were Himself in this sense.