“I ASCEND”
PAG I want to draw attention particularly to the word “ascend”. The Lord says, “I ascend”. The world around is constantly going down and it will end in judgment. The place of the believer is on high, and the more we appreciate what is heavenly and eternal, the more we come to have a judgment of the world and the way it is headed.
We may think that the world is different now from what it was, but we know from the Old Testament that the heart of man after the flesh “is deceitful above all things, and incurable”, Jer 17: 9. The heart of man is no different from what it was when Jeremiah wrote, although its wickedness may seem more visible in some ways. That is all I am going to say about that, because I have in mind that we should be encouraged that there is One who had the right to say, “I ascend”, and that His desire is to take us with Him.
I was particularly thinking about the service of praise - although I would not restrict us to that - where the thought is that we should be on the line of what is ascending to divine Persons. It says in the end of Luke that “he led them out as far as Bethany”, Luke 24: 50. So there is a certain movement that begins on earth, but thereafter He is received up. As assembling to break bread, we gather on earth. Then what is in view is what is ascending.
The word for the burnt offering in Leviticus 1 in the original Hebrew (ōlāh) means ‘to cause to ascend’. The thought is that things should be ascending to God. It is striking that the burnt offering is for God. It includes, of course, the matter of atonement. But neither the priest nor the offerer eats the burnt offering; it is distinctively for God. So what is for God is always on the line of ascending, and it is also what comes first; the burnt offering comes first. The burnt offering, as speaking particularly of what Christ is to God, is distinctive among the offerings. I am exercised that we should get help together in relation to this thought of ascending, so that we might be encouraged that as Christ has a heavenly place, so also our place is heavenly.
NJH On the mount of transfiguration He was saluted by the excellent glory; He ever had a right to His heavenly place. Do you think this is a special occasion here, because the work is now complete?
PAG So we see Him on the mount of transfiguration: He would have had that right, but Peter and James and John could not have gone, because the work was not complete. But now He can say, “my Father and your Father … my God and your God”. He has in mind to take us with Him.
NJH Ascending up above all heavens involves place, but here He ascends to a Person.
PAG He ascends to “my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. Does this involve the convergence of Christ’s rights in relation to who He was, His personal greatness on the one hand, and on the other God’s purpose that Christ should come in as Man, and that He should gather up those who were with Him? In Christ, God’s rights and God’s purpose converge to bring a great result. And it is a result that is for God.
NJH This is really the fruit of revelation; it is the Person who is revealed. “I ascend to my Father and your Father” - it is the Person who is revealed. It brings that whole matter so close to us.
PAG Yes, there was a declaration of God in a general way, but then there was the revelation of God in Christ to those who were able to take it in: “He that has seen me has seen the Father”, John 14: 9. Revelation includes the thought that there is capacity to receive the revelation to take it on. It is by the gift of the Spirit that we have capacity to take on what Christ has revealed.
WMP “He that descended is the same who has also ascended … that he might fill all things”, Eph 4: 10. What we have in John 20 seems to be more the thought of ascending in connection with relationships. Is this more John’s side of love?
PAG It is my impression that “He that descended” could be a title of Christ. He descended in love. It was also an act of love on His part to ascend that He might fill all things. But here the stress is on not just what He did, but on what He would bring with Him. In Ephesians, it records that God “has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus”, Eph 2: 6. “Together” is a characteristic word of Ephesians. We come into it individually, of course, but the enjoyment of “my Father and your Father … my God and your God” is a collective enjoyment; it is something we enjoy together. And “together” would involve love.
NJH Could we have the service of God without this?
PAG It would be incomplete. We may come and simply think about the Lord, and I would respect and honour that. But (since we have mentioned Ephesians), I do not think we can really depart now from what we know, that through Christ and by one Spirit we have access to the Father, Eph 2: 18.
As we have also been taught, to come to the worship of God as revealed is not a higher thought. The Father is supreme in the economy. But there is a wider thought embracing the revelation of God in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This thought in the service of God is illustrated in Psalm 51. In the last verse of the psalm we have -
Then shalt thou have sacrifices of righteousness, burnt-offering, and whole
burnt-offering, v 19.
The thought of a whole burnt-offering would encompass all that Christ has revealed in God. You would not miss something out, would you?
NJH Is it not in the heart of Christ when He comes in at the Supper to go right through to God? That is His object - the Father and God.
PAG Yes, very much so. And there are touches of it elsewhere. Luke is the priestly gospel. We often think of Luke 15 as representing the outgoing of the gospel from the house of God, and that is right. Luke 14 and 15 refer to the house of God and the gospel going out. But what you also get in Luke 15 is a suggestion as to the order of the service, because first there is the man that goes after the lost sheep, speaking of Christ, and then there is the woman that speaks of the Spirit, and then there is the Father. As I say, it is not the Father’s house as we have it in John 14. It is the house of God, but still, you get a sense that in order for the matter to be complete there is the man (Christ) and the woman (the Spirit), and then the Father and it would not be complete without that.
AJH The Lord says in His prayer to the Father in John 17, “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known”, v 26. He has done that. Is this more than that, because this is relationship?
PAG That is helpful. Scripture suggests that He made known to them the Father’s name when He was here: “He that has seen me has seen the Father”. That is what they saw here. But “will make it known” is what He was doing here; there is a fulness here in John 20. He had not said before this, “my Father and your Father … my God and your God”. This is making it known in a fuller way. That is what He is doing every Lord’s day, making that Name known so that we might respond to it. The Lord always acts purposefully. If He is making the Father’s name known, it is for a purpose, and I think the purpose is that it should be responded to.
TRC “Go to my brethren”; I am thinking of your remark as to “together”. It is a company that the Lord has secured on the other side of death. This message was not given to just disciples - it was to His brethren.
PAG That is helpful. He is the Sanctifier, “and those sanctified are all of one”, Heb 2: 11. So they are all of one source. And Christ, as Man, had His source in God. “For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren” is clearly widening it out to include not only the Hebrew saints to whom it was written, but really to all.
It is helpful to bring that into the thought of ascending. “Brethren” is a dignified thought. We do not come to something, and then have to say, perhaps I am not suitable for the place. We can come to it with an understanding, not that I have made myself suitable, but that He is the Sanctifier. We are the sanctified, and there is suitability there.
TRC The Lord said, “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”, Luke 24: 49. Is that the power to ascend?
PAG Very good. And the fact that He distinguishes where the power is from, it is from “on high”. Well, that must mean that “on high” is in view.
CAS You have referred to Luke a number of times. It says there that He was carried up, and here in John it is, “I ascend”. These are wonderful distinctions. Does John have the glory of the Person in mind? For example, in John 18 when Jesus says, “I am he, they went away backward”, v 6. John brings in these thoughts.
PAG Yes, Luke brings out the side of His reception - “whom heaven indeed must receive”, Acts 3: 21. John brings out His right to ascend. Both are true; He is received and it is righteous that He should be, but He has the right to ascend. By way of a very clear distinction, Lucifer said, “I will ascend”, Isa 14: 13. But the Lord says, “I ascend”. It was an act of will on the part of Satan; it was an act of power on the part of the Lord.
CJMcK. In Song of Songs we have the question -
Who is this, she that cometh up from the wilderness
Like pillars of smoke … ? chap 3: 6
Could that be applied to the assembly? The ascending line coming up from the wilderness, and then the pillars of smoke? Smoke would be an allusion to the Old Testament sacrifice that was going up to God?
PAG I think so. She is leaning on her beloved; she is not doing this alone. I like your reference to the sacrifices. Each time there is a response in the service of praise, it is like a pillar of smoke. And where is it going? It is going up.
There is a great deal in scripture that we can very happily and rightly apply to ourselves. My exercise is that it is important to be occupied at the service of praise with what is for divine Persons. We are not occupied with our daily need or with thanks for forgiveness of sins. We are occupied with what would rise up to satisfy. Ascending also comes into the Old Testament is in relation to the lamp, the light, Exod 25: 37, note. The light ascends when the lamp is lit; it is ‘caused to ascend’. There is light, you might say, arising in fragrance to God. There is a place where there is room for the light to shine, and God has been gratified by that.
TRC In the Song of Songs there is a reference to the spouse saying -
My beloved spake and said unto me,
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away chap 2: 10.
It is never intended that the assembly should be held by anything here, and the Lord’s appeal is to -
Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Is that an ascending line?
PAG That is very good. In relation to not being held by anything here, the appeal of love is -
Come with me …
Come, look from the top of Amanah,
From the top of Senir and Hermon,
From the lions’ dens,
From the mountains of the leopards chap 4: 8.
He does not say, look at the lion’s dens and the mountains of the leopards. We may think of these as applying to the things that are contrary and adverse and might cause harm and difficulty. He says, ‘Look from them. You are at the top of the mountain now, do not look back’. It is not that we ignore the scene of responsibility. But there is a time when we can be abstracted from it and we are not occupied with what is negative and adverse because, when we come to what is eternal, all that is negative and adverse will be gone.
WMP At what point do we begin on this ascending line?
PAG One thing I would have to accept is that you might be conscious of it before I am. So I would not say that the Lord comes in at a specific moment; it is a matter for Him, but His desire is to come. What I would say is that if we have a desire to be formed in what is spiritual, we would recognise it. And I think we should recognise it quickly. In John 20, Mary took a moment or two. She had to be adjusted, but when she was, she grasped who was there. Now I might be slow, and there might be a sister has recognised it before any brother has. That is why the collective is so important, because we get the benefit of what the Spirit is giving to each one.
NJH I was thinking earlier today that “the Spirit and the bride say, Come”, Rev 22: 17. The Spirit knows that she is ready for that. Is that not important? In the service of God we are made ready for it?
PAG I do think that. We have been taught as to the order of the service of God, but it is not to suggest that the Spirit is not there from the beginning. There is a moment when the Lord directs the attention of the assembly specifically towards the Spirit. But it is not as though the Spirit only appears at that moment; the Holy Spirit has been there all the time. Indeed, if we are seeking to be right as to matters, the Spirit would be with us in that sense, all the time. And as we come up, you could not really assemble apart from the power of the Spirit, could you?
NJH I think what you said helps. It was a spiritual occasion which they were to be ready for, and that is a great thing. I recall a sister to whom someone said, ‘The Lord came this morning’, and she asked, ‘What did He say?’. He will not come in and be silent; He will convey something of His mind for the moment.
PAG Well, that is good. I got an impression this morning, from the brother giving thanks for the emblems. He spoke about the Lord’s words being fresh. That stayed with me. Jesus said, ‘This do for a calling of me to mind’, 1 Cor 11: 24 note. But that was not only for two thousand years ago; that word remains fresh.
AJH Do you not think it starts at your house, before you come out? It is “from glory to glory”, 2 Cor 3: 18.
PAG Very much so. Broadly speaking, there are three settings in the teaching of the tabernacle system in the Old Testament. There is the holy of holies: that is where the ark was behind the curtain; and then there is the holy place, which would be the tabernacle within the court; and then there is a clean place: we have been taught that would be the houses of the saints. If you look at Leviticus 10 - and I know failure had come in there - they were given of the offerings to eat in a clean place. So the houses of the saints were to be consistent with the holy place and with the holy of holies. These three are distinct, in that sense, but they are not separate. And so the preparation in our houses contributes to what goes forward. Mr Taylor said (vol 73 p493) that, as he was getting ready for the Supper, he was thinking about the brethren getting into their cars and coming to the meeting. He already had the sense in his heart that they were all coming to the same place.
PJM Is there help for us in seeing that the disciples who saw the Lord going up went into the city and up to the upper chamber, Acts 1: 12? “I ascend” is the authority of His movements, but the men of Galilee were directed to the upper room.
PAG “I ascend” gives the Lord His distinctive place, but it is an ascension that attracts; it draws us with Him. He went to God; that was His object. Well, He is our object. So we go with Him where He is. What you say is right, as to the upper chamber. And then there is also, later on, the thought of the upper districts, chap 19: 1. There is an area of things where divine work is proceeding and where divine interests are maintained.
PJM The thought of the odour of the incense was mentioned earlier. “These gave themselves all with one accord to continual prayer”, Acts 1: 14. That would be the heavenly line of activity, would it not?
PAG Mr Darby says,
Grateful incense this, ascending
Ever to the Father’s throne (Hymn 14).
We are thinking particularly of the service of praise, but it is not that there is no fragrance, no incense, in the course of the responsible week. It is not something that happens for an hour and then that is it finished. As was mentioned in the opening prayer, we carry forward what has been enjoyed in the morning and it affects us for the rest of the day. If it affects us, think of what it means to God.
CAS In Acts 20 Paul had descended, but it says there, “having gone up, and having broken the bread”, Acts 20: 11. So Paul was going up before they broke bread, he had that in his mind to be on an ascending line.
PAG Yes, and they had in mind to take Eutychus with them. Man’s day starts in the morning and ends in the evening. God’s day starts in the evening and ends in the morning. The descending is first; the sun going down is first; the sun rising is what concludes the day. Man’s world is not just contrary to God’s world; it is often opposite to it. Man’s will is to ascend. That has been embedded in the will of man, to assert themselves, to insist on rights. All my rights went at the cross, and God’s rights prevailed.
JN I was thinking of elevation, and what was said about being brought into the upper room. It is what is for God, is it not?
PAG That is good. Solomon had an ascent by which he went up, 1 Kings 10: 5. It could be taken account of. It was not just something that he did himself and no one else could see it, but he had an ascent by which he went up. God’s thought for the saints is spiritual and moral elevation. That is what He has in mind, and that is available in the power of the Spirit through the work of Christ. It is striking even as to the resurrection of Christ, it says that He “has been raised up from among the dead”, Rom 6: 4. It would be sufficient to say He was raised. But scripture says He was raised up from among the dead. And what we have quoted from Ephesians 2: 6 is that God “has raised us up together”. The thought of up is prominent.
WMP We begin at the Supper primarily with the thought of the will of God, the One who did that will in perfection. But as we proceed, we move into the purpose of His love. Does that connect with your thought as to what is involved in the ascending line?
PAG It does, because the purpose of His love was to find an answer to His love. It works out in a system of glory. In 1 Corinthians 10, the cup is first and then the loaf. The cup is the public side, where the rights of God must be paramount, but then when we come into the side of privilege, it is the loaf that is first, chap 11. That is Christ’s body and what is secured as a result of that giving. And then it is the cup, which is the new covenant. Christ is the Minister of the new covenant, and a covenant in that setting suggests relationships established in righteousness. So what are these relationships, but relationships of love? And why is He the mediator of it? It is because He knows that love the best, and brings us into it. Although our first occupation is to remember the Lord, the new covenant is already reminding us that the heart of God lies behind all this. So even the Supper itself is lifting us up. It is lifting us up out of our circumstances.
GJH In John 17 we have the Lord’s desires. Before that, He had spoken to His Father, that they may know that “the glory which thou has given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one; I in them and thou in me”, John 17: 22. It was always the Lord’s thought that He would take us into that sphere. Is He in reality establishing that in John 20: 17? Is it something to take in, that it has always been the Lord’s thoughts, that we should enjoy this?
PAG We also have in John 17, “the men whom thou gavest me out of the world”, v 6. If we are given out of somewhere, we must be going somewhere else. He did not say, ‘the men thou gavest me in the world’. He says, “thou gavest me out of the world”. And then, “the glory which thou has given me I have given them”. So He is taking us out of the world into a place of privilege. The glory referred to has in view the glory of sonship; so He is making us suitable for that place of privilege. And then He is telling us that what marks that place of privilege is oneness; “that they may be one, as we are one”.
It was said to me that, particularly in times of difficulty, we should make sure that we listen to a brother’s part in the service of God, because we will see him at his best there. I believe that being one involves seeing each other at our best, and when we are speaking about ascent, I also need the mind to go down: “Each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”, Phil 2: 3. That is how true oneness is brought about, seeing one another in the light of how God sees us, persons on whom sonship has been conferred, persons who are drawn into this atmosphere of oneness at the same standard as divine Persons. It is not a negotiated oneness, but oneness brought about in us by occupation with Christ.
GJH Would all these things free us in the service of God? We are together for His Name, to remember Him and honour His Name. We often think of the subject path of the Lord. His Name was not honoured. But here is a room full of persons that seek to honour the Lord. It is quite a privilege.
PAG What happens in the line of ascending is that all that might encumber us is set aside. We are asked to set ourselves right before we come up to remember the Lord, and that is the right and necessary thing to do. But I would say this, I have known what it is to be adjusted even as the saints assemble. When you see the brethren and you see the loaf and the cup, maybe something comes to mind where I need adjustment. The Lord is gracious. We would always want to be right in order to be available to Him, and He would graciously help us to adjust ourselves so that there may be that oneness.
NJH The Lord Himself takes us up.
PAG That would relate, would you say, to His place as Head? Thus we are drawing directly from Him, but we would not do it apart from the Spirit. We would recognise that the Lord is the Prince of the princes of the Levites. He is the Minister of the holy places. He is the One, as it were, who is directing the matter.
NJH While He is divine, He is a Man. He is on our side.
PAG He is. What I would say for the sake of completeness is that Christ’s power as Head is known, but the power of the Holy Spirit is also known. They work together. It is through Christ and by one Spirit (Eph 2: 18), and we are “strengthened with power by his [the Father’s] Spirit in the inner man”, Eph 3: 16. So in that sense, would you say there is a convergence of divine power in order that the heart of God might be satisfied?
NJH They do not act as independent of each other. It is one will, and one power. It is a delightful thought that it is a Man that is ascending as we have here.
PAG Yes. We referred to Solomon’s ascent. It was his ascent.
CJMcK Is ascension more to a Person than to a place? I was thinking that He says, “to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God”.
PAG Yes. I think in this setting that is very much so. We do come to the point we refer to in the psalm -
This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it Ps 132: 14.
God brings us into the place of His rest. But it is only His rest because Christ is there. It is not His rest abstractly; it is His rest because Christ is there. If you go to a great palace, if the monarch is there at all, you might get two minutes to speak to the monarch, and the rest of the time you are occupied with the glory and grandeur of the place. That is not heaven. Heaven is characterised by the Person. The glory will be seen in the persons who are there and they will be like Christ, and they will have one Person in their view.
CJMcK In John 17: 24 the Lord prays, “I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory”. Is that the glory of the Person?
PAG Absolutely, and what a range of glories that would encompass. We have been taught that the glory of sonship is a glory that can be shared, but the glory of the Mediator is His. The glory of the Saviour, the glory of the Head, the glory of the Minister of the holy places, these are His. We can behold such glory; it is not beyond us. There is the glory He had with the Father along with the Father before the foundation of the world; that relates to His place in Godhead. We are not said to behold that. We can worship in the presence of it, but we can behold many glories that He has that make Him distinctive.
TRC In that regard, in John 14, the Lord says, “I go to prepare you a place”, but then He adds, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”, v 2, 3. So the place is there. We are received to Himself; that “where I am ye also may be”. We often speak of our enjoyment of that in a coming day when the Lord comes. Would it have a bearing on your exercise, that that place is prepared, but the Lord’s desire is that, as He comes, that we ascend to that place where He is?
PAG Very much so. “I am coming to you” in John 14: 18 I would understand to be His characteristic disposition towards us. There is a time when He will come for us in actuality, and thereafter will be His appearing. In John 17 the Lord says, “this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”, v 3. It does not say, ‘This will be the eternal life’; it is the eternal life. This would accord with what you are saying, that we can touch that place of dwelling now. And the Spirit is spoken of as “the earnest of our inheritance”, Eph 1: 14. So the Spirit is the foretaste of all these things. That is what really pleases God, that what He has set on is being enjoyed by His saints now.
PJM “I ascend” is in the present tense. There was nothing to hinder this being accomplished. He had not yet ascended to His Father, but the word for the disciples is, “I ascend to my Father”. In other words, ‘Come into this enjoyment now’.
PAG It helps us to understand what He means in John 4, that “the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth … God is a spirit; and they who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth”, v 23, 24. We are getting an insight into that here. “I ascend” is an ascension into a spiritual sphere. And God is a spirit. They who worship must worship in spirit. So that is in suitability to the place, but also in truth. Truth would involve the knowledge of God. The Lord says this is “my God and your God”. This is “my Father and your Father”. He is saying, ‘I am able to show you who God is, so that you may worship in spirit and in truth’.
PJM So this is a subjective answer to what is in John 4?
PAG Yes. There was a mountain in John 4; there was a certain elevation. The woman said that the fathers of Samaria worshipped in this mountain (v 20), but the Lord has something far greater in mind. It is not a mountain on earth, but it is ascension into heaven.
LAH I want to ask as to the adjustment that Mary received in John 20. She really needed to know the Lord Jesus in a new condition, did she not? The Lord just speaks her name and she gets adjustment. Is it personal?
PAG The assembly never comes into John’s gospel formally. But I think this word, “Mary”, addressed directly to this woman, shows that the assembly is in view. We know that the assembly is always in view. It says of the Lord that He “nourishes and cherishes it”, Eph 5: 29. And it speaks about “the washing of water by the word” (v 26), that there may be “no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things”, v 27. He is showing here in His approach to Mary, how He would take away all the things that might hinder and just leave it so that you are occupied with Him personally. She says to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni”. She immediately responds.
Even if we do require adjustment, one thing about the saints of the assembly is that they are in true relations with Christ. They are very quickly adjusted. She does not debate the matter. She accepts immediately what He is saying. This is in view of what we have been speaking of, worshipping in spirit and in truth. As you rightly said, she could not know Him in the condition that He was in before, but as adjusted she was being set forward towards worshipping in spirit and in truth. Would that be right?
LAH Yes, every barrier had been set aside, and she is really occupied with the Person.
PAG Her love was very great. She was offering to do the impossible. But the Lord was saying, ‘The things that would be impossible for man have all been done; you just need now to be where I am’, and that is a wonderful thing.
CAS You have been speaking about being occupied with a Person. She receives the most wonderful message, but the first thing she says to them is that she has seen the Lord. That is the key to it, is it not, to see the Person first?
PAG That is good. What she did was acknowledge His authority. “She had seen the Lord”, v 18. This word, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, is an authoritative word; she had the right to say it. And similarly, Paul says, as to the breaking of bread, “I received from the Lord, that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, in the night in which he was delivered up, took bread”, 1 Cor 11: 23. The Lord’s authority enters into our assembling to break bread, but I believe the recognition of His authority is essential for entering into the service of praise.
CAS Even when she did not have Him, she was still thinking of Him as Lord: “they have taken away my Lord”, v 13.
PAG Where was her compass, her sense of direction? As far as she was concerned they had gone if the Lord was not there. But “my Lord”, there He was. She had seen the Lord, and He had said these things to her, and no doubt she reported them faithfully.
JN So that the fruit is Godward rather than manward?
PAG Godward rather than manward, definitely. That is important, because our responsibilities manward will finish. We will come, if the Lord will, to the gospel. That is manward, but it has God in view, no doubt. But that responsibility will finish; our responsibility to respond to God will never end. It will not feel like a responsibility, exactly. It will be something we delight to do, but nevertheless it will continue forever.
WMP You have spoken about being responsive to God and worship. You have mentioned that, and also praise. So is that really the prime thought in ascension? It is not exactly that we have a more privileged or blessed portion. It is really the outflow of that, as has been remarked. Is that what is in your mind?
PAG Yes, very much. We have spoken of sonship. Sonship is for God. It is a privilege conferred upon us, but it is for God’s satisfaction, and that was what was in my mind, in referring to the burnt-offering; it was for God. The primary thought is that it was for God, and the offerer laid his hand on the head of the burnt-offering. There was the matter of atonement, so that righteousness was met, but really he identified himself, not with his sins or his past, but with what was for God. A local brother used to remind us often, about the importance of being occupied with what was for God. We can be very occupied - and not in any way unprofitably - with what is for us, what our blessings are. But what are our blessings for? They are for God. David said, “for all is of thee, and of that which is from thy hand have we given thee”, 1 Chron 29: 14. Why has God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ? It is so that we can be responsive to Him. Why has He raised us up together and set us down together? It is so that we can be responsive to Him. To put it as simply as this, what is the point of a blessing? If it does not result in thanks to God, then it just becomes something that I have. It is a fine thing to have a spiritual blessing, but it is a finer thing for it to work out in response toward God.
Mr Darby comments that the end of Psalm 16 says, “thy countenance is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore”, v 11, Collected Writings vol 10 p338. That is taking account of the blessings that are in Christ. We see them objectively. But he also comments that Psalm 17 ends with, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness”, v 15. That is when we are formed by them. So in John’s gospel we see what is in Christ, and in John’s epistles we are formed by what we see. But what is the result to be? Well, likeness to Christ is surely for God’s pleasure. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Gen 1: 26. What was that for? It was for His delight and pleasure. God’s delight and pleasure is that eternally He will have persons in His presence who are like Christ.
GJH What is a response Godward? How would we express that actively? I know we have about what it means to God, but what does praise Godward mean?
PAG In its simplest sense it means that we understand that He loves us and that we want to answer to that. It is simply that God is love, and therefore He is looking for an answer in love. Response to God would include the recognition of His revelation as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It would involve that we recognise there is a vessel of praise, that is, the assembly. There is glory to God “in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages”, Eph 3: 21. But the root of it all is love. Sometimes a brother might feel hindered. At the culmination of the service of praise, the saints of the assembly respond to God. A brother might question whether he is able for it. I never could be able on my own, but we are strengthened in the inner man by the Father’s Spirit. And if what we have in mind is simply the expression of collective affection Godward, that in itself is a very great matter. We want to be intelligent, of course, but we should guard against thinking that this is too advanced for us. The Lord Jesus says, “my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. And as has been remarked, He is the power for that. So do I have the power by myself? I do not need to. The power is in Christ, and it is by one Spirit. Does that help?
GJH We may be occupied with things that we have been saved from. But then there is adjustment and that helps us in responding to Christ, a living Man, and you focus on Him. I see that the crux of it is intelligent worship to God.
PAG Worship Godward means that we are thinking about what He appreciates, not what I appreciate, and He appreciates Christ above all else.
Glasgow
11th January 2026
List of initials (all local except where indicated):-
T R Campbell; P A Gray, Linlithgow; A J Henry; G J Henry; L A Henry; N J Henry;
C J McKay; P J Metcalfe; J Newberry; W M Patterson; C A Seeley