WHAT CHRIST IS FOR US
[p. 366] WHAT CHRIST IS FOR US
John 7: 37 - 39; Hebrews 4: 11 - 16
JBS John 4 presents in a most striking way what is personal. A woman in the most deplorable condition is to be set up in the most magnificent style conceivable in the very place of her wretchedness; that is expressed in the Lord’s words, “shall never thirst”; you find the detail of the Spirit’s action in Romans 8, but we get it here, so to speak, all in a lump.
In John 4 you get the darkest circumstances; in John 7 the brightest. It is the last day of the feast; they were celebrating the fact that God had made man His object on the earth, and that is what many christians would like. What we see here is that the Holy Spirit would surpass everything that was ever on the earth. “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”. It is not merely what I require as a poor sinner or what flows out in service, but the great point is the immense resource which I have found in Christ; the flowing out proves what has flowed in. It is a wonderful thing that I am set in this world to be a giver. I am capacitated to impart because of the overflowing bounty of God. It is a great thing to have received so much from God that you can share it with others without loss to yourself. I ought so to be in the power of the heavenly portion God has given me that I could go to the richest man in the country and say, Do you ever thirst? I know you do! but I can tell you of something which, if it were only yours, would place you for ever out of the reach of thirst.
It is right to connect this subject with priesthood, because, unless satisfaction is yours, you are not really free to be His servant.
The tendency of the Hebrews was to go back religiously to earth: the writer seeks to preserve them [p. 367] from this by presenting to them a Person in heaven who is everything to them. Only let that Person be everything to you, and your heart will be sure to be drawn from the place where He is not.
Ques Do you mean everything to meet your need?
JBS Yes, but not merely that, He is my resource.
Ques How do you connect that He is my resource with John 7?
JBS By the Spirit - “If any man thirst let him come unto me, and drink”. I am not seeking anything from this scene, but I am seeking all from Him; it comes from the glory where He is, and it is the normal action of the Holy Spirit to turn my heart to Him where He is.
Hebrews begins by the presentation of Him as the purger of our sins. In chapter 2 we are His brethren, and in chapter 3 we are God’s house, the companions of Christ. Then he shows there is a tendency not to go on, to get discouraged like their fathers.
Well, it is obviously not a question of sins, for they are gone, but of infirmities, pressure of circumstances, bad health, and greatest of all, bereavement. The question is, then, how will He meet you? He does not remove the circumstances, but He sympathises with you in them. Sympathy is a wonderful thing to a person under pressure.
Many people mistake the favour of Jehovah for the sympathy of Christ, but the two things are altogether different. I will give you an illustration - By the favour of Jehovah, Abraham overcame the kings, but on his return from the slaughter he met the priest, who brought forth bread and wine and blessed him. In the presence of such an expression of sympathy Abraham can readily decline every offer of the king of Sodom. That is the difference between help and sympathy.
In the case of Mary of Bethany, Christ comes to one weighed down by the pressure of her sorrow, and [p. 368] makes Himself known to her, so that she acquires such a knowledge of Him that He becomes dearer to her than even Lazarus was; that is the acquisition. The effect of sympathy is that I find out my resource.
I do not think the Lord ever sympathises with anybody simply to relieve them, but in order that they should bear Him company; that is the idea of Hebrews. They accompany Him into the brightest spot, into the holiest - from the lowest conceivable spot to the highest conceivable spot, the presence of God.
Ques. By the Spirit?
JBS Yes, it could not be in any other way. The Lord comes to you in your sorrow; anyone can have a friend in joy, but it is a wonderful thing to have a friend in sorrow. Take the case of Mary of Bethany. People feel they must turn to the Lord in their sorrow, and are thankful that He enables them to bear up well; but that is not sympathy. In sympathy the Lord makes us sensible that He has been through all the sorrow here; none can feel the pressure of things here as He felt it, and whilst He does not change my circumstances, He lifts me to Himself from the place where I am to the place where He is; and though the pressure is not removed I get an acquisition in a deeper knowledge of Himself, and thus He makes Himself indispensable to me. I do not believe anyone’s heart is drawn out of this world until he has learned the priesthood; if you are attached to a Person not here you will very soon think little of this place.
Ques Are you not trenching a little on headship?
JBS No, I am not, there I derive from Him; He Himself is before me here.
Ques Do we not come a little bit close to it when we come to the Person?
JBS The Head is indispensable to me for service;
[p. 369] the Priest is indispensable to me personally. I could not get on in this poor world without Him.
Ques But are we not getting on to the church?
JBS I am preparing you for it; I am going on to it.
Ques Do you contrast John 7 with priesthood?
JBS No, but priesthood is the opening out of John 7. In John 7 we come to Him, but in priesthood He comes to us.
Ques What is the action of the Spirit in priesthood?
JBS The Spirit leads me to Christ. He is my only bond with Christ; His sympathy draws me to Him, but it is to the side of One who has passed out of the sorrow. I believe Mary learned it in John 11, hence she comes out in chapter 12 to break the alabaster box and anoint Him for His burial. The alabaster box in Luke 7 was for a living Christ; this, for His burial; hence the Lord says, “Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her”; and I do not think it is enough preached. He could produce such love in a sinner that she could give up all for Him. Priesthood has nothing at all to do with sins; it has to do with infirmities. It is to prevent from sin if you like. You find all your resources in Christ, and you appreciate Him the more. You find such attractions in Christ that you would not care to settle in this place. The more I am drawn away to Christ the less I want to please myself here. My heart is drawn away to Him in glory. Like Ruth - “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go”, etc.
In the exercise of priesthood the heart is drawn away by the Priest. In Hebrews 10 you go into the holiest with Him. In chapter 12 you are running a race to Him; instead of settling down here, you are off to heaven where He is.
[p. 370] A very important principle is stated in Luke 11. If you have no part dark your whole body will be full of light. Your body is always indicative of your spiritual state, and the measure of the Spirit’s work in you. In Romans your body is to be the exponent of the will of God.
If we pass through trial without the sympathy of Christ we get no good from it; self-occupation is increased.
It is well to see that it is not pressure nor sorrow of itself that softens, but really the sympathy of Christ.
If the Lord is pleased to snap some natural link very dear to me, I am drawn more to Himself by His priestly service, and instead of mourning over the snapping of the natural link, I get more than I lost, I get an acquisition, so that He is more endeared to me than ever. It is not that I am indifferent to the sorrow; the one who knows most of sorrow feels it most. So the Lord, being rejected and having to taste death here, had a keener sense of the ruin of man than any other. See Him as He weeps over Jerusalem: when He was with Mary He was “moved in spirit”. Whatever you lose on earth it is more than made up in Christ. It is in His priestly service that you find this. Supposing you have lost your property, by the Priest you are carried above it; you have lost here, but you have a greater gain.
Ques But that is more than priesthood?
JBS I think you get it in priesthood. You really come to find out what is in Him, how boundless it is. In John 7 there was much earthly gain in the feast of tabernacles, but there was that which was infinitely greater. See how Job’s friends misunderstood him; they looked upon all his afflictions as proof that he had done something wrong. The truth is, the more a man advances in the things of God, the more God strips him of natural things. The apostle says, “we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake”, but that only brings out the preciousness of Christ. Think how Paul and John ended their days! The apostles passed out of the world in obscurity to man’s eye. Paul in the midday of his career was a distinguished man, but in the end had to say, “all men forsook me”. People often say that the church is in ruin, which is true, but I say I am not looking at the ruin but at the treasure. It is a great comfort to me that the treasure is hid. Show it me, they say; I cannot, it is hid. It is a hid treasure, that is what it is to Christ.
In Hebrews 10 we have a great Priest over the house of God; that directs us to what He is at the other side of death. No one can touch the truth of the church if he does not take resurrection ground.
Ques What do you mean by taking resurrection ground?
JBS You must reach Christ where He is. Take John 20; you are on resurrection ground there, and had we the affections of the apostles we could not be content without being in spirit where the Lord is. In Hebrews 10 we have boldness to enter the holiest, where there can be no question of sins at all. No one could explain what “the holiest” is; no one could understand it unless he was there.
Ques Would you say we have the right to enter in because He has gone in first?
JBS He never left it; it is an entire mistake to think otherwise. When He died He opened the way for us to enter in. In a sense He is the holiest.
Ques What is the antitype of it?
JBS Beholding the Lord’s glory. In Hebrews you get the great idea of the place; there was nothing in the holiest but the ark of the covenant and the golden censer.
Ques Is not Christ said to enter the holiest in chapter 9: 12?
JBS [p. 372] Yes, but that is in connection with His work; it is with regard to His people. He never left it, but it goes on further and says He entered “into heaven itself”.
Ques Why is it “heaven” in chapter 9 and “the holiest” in chapter 10?
JBS Heaven is the place: the holiest the moral value of the place. I have not entered heaven itself; He has, but I have a right to the place; the holiest is moral: you do not go to heaven for the house of God. He comes into the midst in all the moral value of the place. We must see what is true as to Himself, and what is true for us. On His own side He was always there; on my side He was not - He is gone in as the Forerunner, that is in relation to us. The holiest is heaven in moral character. It is the actual condition of the place, and the effect of it is the race (chapter 12).
Now it is difficulties, not infirmities; so you need faith and patience, and you find He has gone all the way; the one who runs well has his heart fixed on Him in heaven, and the discipline of God helps him. Then, “ye are come unto mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel”. The idea is of a man come of age; he has come to a point where new things are before him.
I am first drawn away from earth by a Person who is indispensable to me; I am brought by Him from the very lowest spot to the very highest, to find myself in a circle of unspeakable brightness, beholding the Lord’s glory; and the effect is that, instead of trying to settle down here, my whole object will be to reach Him, and in faith I overcome the difficulties on [p. 373] the way to Him in heaven. Now I am in the life of faith. Chapter 13 is what your appearance on earth is, “content with such things as ye have”. Inside the veil and outside the camp, praising God and doing good to men.