THE MAGNITUDE OF CHRIST AS BECOME MAN
[p. 46] THE MAGNITUDE OF CHRIST AS BECOME MAN
In taking up this scripture tonight I have in my mind to speak of it as representing Christ. I wish particularly to present it in relation to its measurements, having in view that God is a God of measure (2 Corinthians 10:13).
It is well that we should have before us that He is a God of measure. The physical creation attests the accuracy of His measurements, and the principle enters into every part of the creation. And as it marks the physical system, so it marks the moral system. The moral system is pictured in the tabernacle and its appurtenances in the book of Exodus, and there, as most of us know, we find the principle of measure, beginning with the passage I have just read, and working out from the ark to the curtains of the court; in other words, working out from Christ to the uttermost boundaries of the moral system.
Taking up this principle, the apostle Paul enjoins young believers, as at Rome — indeed, all believers — to be governed in their service by the measure of faith given to each. Then in writing to the Corinthians he calls attention to the fact that he himself was governed by that same principle. His service was according to the measure that God had apportioned to him. He points out that that measure enabled him to reach even to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 10:13 - 16). Every convert through his ministry was an evidence of that measure. It is noteworthy that this appears in the letter to the Corinthians. This is no doubt in keeping with the fact that the truth is developed in those letters from the standpoint of the tabernacle in the wilderness, and so it was important that these refractory converts, which, alas!, they [p. 47] were, should know that if they were aiming in their pride and ambition to reach beyond their measure, and so distort the divine thoughts, he, the apostle, did not go beyond his measure. He was moving in accord with the God of measure. It was for them to learn what measure it was God had apportioned to each of them, and not to pose in another man’s line of things, which they were doing, made ready to their hands (2 Corinthians 10:16).
I mention all this in a prefatory way, believing in its practicableness if we are to move here so as not to disturb the divine equilibrium. God works according to the principle of weight and measure; otherwise we should not have the physical universe as it exists. And these same principles apply in the moral system. It is a question of weight, as it were, and measure — I have measure particularly in mind — and unless each of us discovers his measure, the measure that God has apportioned him, we shall disturb, as I said, in so far as we may, the divine equilibrium — a most serious matter! The Corinthians were doing it, and what began there has extended in our day throughout the length and breadth of christendom; and in it we find a perfect travesty of the poise which marked the divine moral system at the outset. It is for us, therefore, as being recovered through the grace of God, to recognise this great divine principle, so that each of us may be found moving according to the measure which God has apportioned him.
I have taken up the ark of Noah on these lines, and I wish to speak of it for a moment as a type of Christ. Relatively it is a type of the assembly also, and I wish to indicate this in my remarks. I wish to speak of it from the standpoint of its dimensions, but I shall allude to other features. What is to be observed is that Noah is enjoined to make himself this great vessel (verse 14). We may conclude, therefore,
[p. 48] that it represents Christ from our side. Indeed, the passage in Hebrews 11, commenting on this section of Scripture, speaks of Noah preparing an ark by faith for the saving of his house. Now when we come to the ark of the covenant, Moses was not enjoined to make it for himself or for Israel. It is not there Christ on the side of man. It is Christ on God’s side.
God said to Noah, “Make thyself an ark of gopher wood”, Genesis 6:14. As made, Noah would regard it as available on his side. It was, as it were, his. Its measurements, as you will observe, were large. It would be a good-sized ship even at the present day, notwithstanding the enormous dimensions of some vessels afloat. This vessel measured at least four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet deep. Now these measurements being so comparatively extensive are given with divine intent. We are reminded that there was to be capacity in this vessel for everything of God, including men and the lower creatures on the earth. All were to be accommodated there.
Now in speaking thus I want just to fix on your minds the greatness of Christ as become Man, and I have in view that we may become large correspondingly. Our environment affects us, whatever it may be. If we are located in a small island, for instance, the tendency is to be insular and circumscribed, whereas the thought of God is that His people should be enlarged, that they should embrace everything that He is thinking about. The blessed God has been pleased to disclose His mind to us, to disclose to us the things that are occupying Him. Is it not wonderful? How large a place are we giving to those thoughts of God? Are our hearts so enlarged, so in keeping with Christ as He was, and as He is, as to embrace all the thoughts of God? and not only all His thoughts, but all His people?
[p. 49] And I may go farther and say that we should include the whole race of man, for the more we are in accord with Christ, with His great measurements, the more shall we include what God is interested in, and He is interested in the whole race of mankind. In the book of Jonah you see how God was interested in the hundred and twenty thousand souls that did not know their right hand from their left hand. God thought of them. Jonah 4:11 So you see these great dimensions, as typifying, as I am sure they do, the Lord Jesus, point to inclusiveness of everything that is of God. But although so great they are exclusive of everything that is not of God. Thus while we are to be enlarged, let no one be loose in his enlargement of heart. There was no natural sympathy, no sentimentality to govern Noah in those whom he was to admit into the ark. God specified what was to be admitted. In principle not one iota of the corruption that marked the antediluvian world was to be admitted, but there was abundance of room for all that was of God. There is an inclusive principle which involves the work of the Spirit in us, an enlargement that He produces in accordance with Christ. Then there is an exclusiveness involved in the presence of the Holy Spirit, for He is the Holy Spirit, and that means that He tolerates nothing that is unholy, so that we are to be large enough to include all that is of God, and on the other hand to be rigidly exclusive of what is corrupt, and what is not of God.
The Lord Jesus as here in manhood embraced infinitely every divine thought. I have in my mind the gospel of Luke. You see, for instance, how Simeon held Him in his arms as a babe and what great thoughts came into his mind by the Spirit; he blessed God and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: for mine eyes have seen thy salvation ... a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel”, Luke 2:29 - 32.
[p. 50] You see how the greatness of Christ, as indicated in these dimensions, came into Simeon’s mind by the Spirit. It is thus He comes into our minds, beloved, by the Spirit in the temple. You apprehend Him in this greatness: as the angels had said, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, Luke 2:14. You see the greatness, the vastness of the thought that came to light even at the birth and childhood of Christ.
One might cite instance upon instance throughout Luke to show how this greatness was evidenced in the Lord. As risen He says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached to all nations. You see how wide His scope was. And then again in the epistles, “There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all”, 1 Timothy 2:5,6. The whole race of man was in view in the Lord’s mind as He died. I may say indeed, beloved, that every one of us was individually before the Lord as He died; the smallest as well as the greatest of the redeemed were in the mind of Christ when He died. Does that not touch your heart? Paul said, “Who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2:20.
Then there were rooms in the ark. One could enlarge on them, but the time forbids it. The meaning is, as I apprehend it, that the Lord would take account of each family or each subject, as I may say, in the divine testimony, by itself.
Some of us are altogether too general. It is well to be general at times, of course, but it is also well to be particular. There is generalisation which is right to a point, but we must never forget particularisation. There are particular things we have to deal with, and we have to learn to deal with them by [p. 51] themselves — in relation to the whole, to be sure, but things have to be taken up separately to be rightly understood. The Lord would show us how He took things up in His teaching.
The word for rooms may be rendered ‘cells’, compact places, in which one could retire and take account of any given thing. It might be one of a species of creation as an illustration. Any one of them might be confined in one of these cells in the ark, and one might go in there and look at that species and contemplate it. It presented some feature to the mind of God. Every order of creature in the different families of the lower creation presents some thought of God. And so, taking this up spiritually, you see how many things there are to be contemplated. What a variety of things there was to see as one would move about in the ark! All were God’s creatures; they were created for His pleasure, and hence to be admired. They were types of what we have now spiritually.
I do not agree with the word ‘non-essential’ as applied to divine things. We hear much of non-essentials. Scripture admits of nothing like that. At the same time there are gradations in importance in divine things. The ark was thus fitted for contemplation. Things could be regarded separately, all witnessing to the thoughts of God.
Then the ark was built in first, second and third storeys. These are but an amplification of what I have been speaking. There were compact compartments or cells, of which doubtless there were many, but there were three gradations of dignity — first, second and third storeys. These three distinctions are maintained throughout Scripture. There is the third heaven as an illustration, and an outer or atmospheric heaven spoken of. Then again we find it here and we find it in Exodus; the holy of holies,
[p. 52] and the holy place and the court. The same is seen in the temple Solomon built. So that we have thus indicated, gradations of privilege and dignity — another great lesson to be learnt in the teaching of Christ. He unfolded these things, and they are further unfolded in the epistles; the assembly is in the place of greatest privilege. We read of the Father of whom every family in the heavens and on the earth is named. The assembly has the first place obviously. Then there is Israel occupying the next place of privilege, and then there is the area of the nations. So that God maintains these distinctions right through, and He would have us to know them. If we occupy the third storey (which is emphasised in the New Testament in the upper room, and so on) we can easily traverse the other two. Have you ever done it? You see many believers are unaccustomed to take up the things of God in their subdivisions, hence there is loss of spiritual understanding and enlargement.
I cannot close this subject without saying a word about the door. It came out in Christ; it means His availability to man. The door was in the side. It refers, as I have said, to the accessibility of Christ. To the neediest, the most despised of men He was always accessible, as it says, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them”. Luke 15:2. Let us not forget the door. The assembly should correspond with all these features.
I urge upon you the importance of understanding the greatness of Christ as Man here from the standpoint of including everything that was of God, and carrying through, even through death, all intact. Nothing was lost. All was brought through, and it is maintained now in the assembly in the power of the Spirit. The holy city, Jerusalem, the Lamb’s wife, will have all the divine thoughts. She corresponds with God’s measurements [p. 53] There was a light on the top of the ark, finished in a cubit. The light came from heaven. For us everything is seen in that light:
“And Heav’nly light makes all things bright,
Seen in that blissful gaze” (12:3)
Everything that Christ did was in relation to heaven. Luke begins with heaven, Gabriel himself having come out of it. And then the angel goes to the shepherds; then there is a multitude of the heavenly host; all is from that standpoint. Correspondingly, we who occupy, as I may say, the third storey are in a position of knowing everything, having the light of heaven. The Lord said to His disciples, “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven”, and then He lifted up His eyes and prayed, saying, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes”, Luke 10:20,21. The whole system of divine purpose is knowable to us. It is within our range. Heavenly light sheds its beams on all. We see everything from the top.