THE WAY OF LIFE (5)
THE WAY OF LIFE (5)
JT The “signs” in this chapter suggest life in its highest aspect. We are here led out of earthly associations into what is wholly spiritual and heavenly.
AFM Do you regard the death of Christ as a sign? “This he said, signifying what death he should die”, John 12:33.
JT It was a sign. He says so Himself elsewhere. They asked for a sign, and he said no sign should be given save the sign of Jonas: “For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”, Matthew 12:40.
AFM And so in John 2, “What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?” Jesus answered and said unto them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. That would distinctly refer to this chapter.
JT Quite. In this chapter the Lord’s resurrection is treated wholly from the spiritual point of view. Matthew presents its outward effect.
RSS Scripture does not limit this gospel to “seven” signs. Sometimes we do. There are seven prominent signs, however.
JT Yes, but there are more, as you say. In chapter 12 we have a sign in the Father’s voice from heaven, and in this chapter we have read there are several. That is, the opened sepulchre and what was seen in it; the appearance to Mary; the appearance to the disciples on the first day of the week; and then the appearance again eight days afterwards.
AFM You mean that the fact that He comes in through closed doors would be a sign?
JT Quite. It is formally mentioned. In the first instance we are told why they were closed, but [p. 430] the fact that they were closed is mentioned to show that the Lord’s appearance was supernatural. In the second instance we are not told why they were closed, but they were closed.
FL I think that in having our attention called, as we have had often, to “seven” signs, it has rather been to those that were outward or public. As you say, there were many others.
AFM So in your mind then you would regard the twentieth chapter as a sequence of the nineteenth. It is the resurrection and the ascension that are in view.
JT Yes; what it signifies, I think, is life, not in its outward effects but as inward, as qualifying us for the inward sphere. That is, it is a wholly spiritual thing that you come to. It is the highest form, as you might say, of life. We have often remarked on the different forms of life in Genesis 1 and 2 — namely, vegetable and animal life in chapter 1; but in chapter 2 you have something superior; you have the breath of God, bringing in a superior kind of life.
WHF What is the distinction between life here and what comes earlier?
JT This life is to qualify us for what is within, I think.
WHF Life that enables us to live in the position where God has placed us.
JT Yes, quite. We have remarked frequently during these meetings that the way of life is above, and the Scriptures furnish various examples of this. So life from the dead is connected with what is above. When the son of the widow of Sarepta died, he was in her bosom. Naturally the bosom would supply life to the child, or the maintenance of it, but the prophet took him from the bosom of the mother up to his own room. He was brought to life there. So with the Shunammite’s son. The [p. 431] prophet, learning from the mother that the child had died, sends Gehazi, as if that could meet the contingency; but there was no movement. Gehazi does what the prophet had directed, but there is no result. Well, the mother had left the child on the prophet’s bed, which was also above, and the prophet had to come and lie on the child, and put his eyes to his eyes and his mouth to his mouth, and warmth comes in and the child is revived, but it was above.
WCR What is the significance of that contact?
JT Very much like what we get in this chapter.
GAM What would answer to the servant’s staff, do you think?
JT I think it would have reference to the prophet’s experience, but that did not do. What was to be discovered was that life in the sense in which it was presented was a wholly new thing; and personal contact, by the prophet, was needed.
GWH The Shunammite did not seem satisfied with the staff. It would not do for her. There has to be direct contact.
JT Yes. “The mother of the child said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee”, 2 Kings 4:30. In her affection she discerned the way of life for her son.
FL So here the Lord comes in as the quickening spirit; He breathes on them.
JT And that would correspond with the immediate contact of the prophet with the Shunammite’s child. The result of the process resorted to by the prophet (2 Kings 4: 34) in stretching himself on the child, would be correspondence in life afterwards. This is also seen here: when the Lord said, “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”, He breathed on the disciples. As representing Him here they would have His Spirit.
HG The prophet suits himself to the measure of [p. 432] the child.
AFM In the case before us it would not seem as if Mary was very wise at first, but she had remarkable affection. I suppose she delineates the way into life from a certain view-point, possibly from where Christ is recognised as Lord. “They have taken away my Lord”.
JT She is not marked by intelligence here. She is occupied with the garden and the gardener, but she has very fine spiritual instincts. What I was thinking of first, was that we might see how in chapter 12 we have the full result of life, in Israel. It is seen in spontaneity. That is, life produces its own fruit — affection, energy, etc. The Father’s commandment is life eternal, but life is seen in spontaneity, firstly, in the family, as we had it this morning, at Bethany, and, secondly, in its political feature. The Lord is hailed as the King coming to Jerusalem. That is, the fruit of life in revived Israel is foreshadowed, I think, celebrating the approach of the King. There is nothing said as to who suggested this. It is said in John 12: 12: “On the morrow a great crowd who came to the feast, having heard that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem, took branches of palms and went out to meet him, and cried, Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel. And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat upon it; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt. Now his disciples knew not these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of him, and that they had done these things to him”. There you see foreshadowed, I think, revived Israel acknowledging the rights of the Messiah. It appears as a testimony to that life which takes form politically. We are said to have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God. That is what answers to this, the spontaneity of what you might call political [p. 433] instinct, acknowledging the rights of the Messiah, King of Israel. And so in the next paragraph we have: “And there were certain Greeks among those who came up that they might worship in the feast; these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him, saying, Sir, we desire to see Jesus”, John 12:20. Here the Greeks are coming. That is, it is the spontaneous result of the work of God in its ever widening development, and it all refers to Christ. Life in all its movements refers to Christ.
PL Will the assembly, as the city, set forth in the coming system of glory more distinctly the spontaneity of life in relation to the political system; and then will the persons in family relationships, according to John 20, set it forth more distinctly on the family line?
JT Quite. The family would be the inside and the city the outside feature; the order in the twelfth chapter is the family first.
JB Would you say that all that is contained in the twelfth chapter regarding the glory of Jesus is the result of the raising of Lazarus?
JT Yes, that is what it goes on to say: “The crowd therefore that was with him bore witness because he had called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from among the dead”, John 12:17.
PL In John 12 we have the political system, and the Christ as Head, outwardly in view of display; but John 20 is inward because it is life seen in family relationships. So that life is seen in both the political system and in the family relationships.
JT Yes. The heavenly city is replete with life. It is the city of the living God.
AFM In advancing this, is it in your mind that these thoughts of what is political in Israel and of the Son of man as being the centre in a wider sense, will be developed by and by? Is this a prophetic view of life?
JT [p. 434] I think the twelfth chapter gives us the full bearing of the previous chapters, all in connection with, you might say, Israel. The setting is in relation to Israel, so that you have the ever widening development. The Greeks represent the Gentiles. Notice, they “came up”. Now, in the first chapter Andrew and Philip are engaged in finding others. They represent the impulse that Christ gives as He begins to move. Andrew finds Simon and Philip finds Nathanael. That is, Andrew finds the great assembly man and Philip finds the Israelite. The impulse from Christ, because, although you see the great results, the life, the impulse is from Christ. So that as the Greeks came up, it says, “These therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and they asked him saying, Sir, we desire to see Jesus. Philip comes and tells Andrew, and again Andrew comes and Philip, and they tell Jesus”, John 12:21. That is, as you might say, the two great agencies in movement at the outset are now occupied in carrying to the Lord intelligence as to the wide result of the testimony. It is well to see the full bearing of life.
AFM What would you say about the answer that Jesus gave when they come and tell Him?
JT Well, all this is a testimony, anticipating what is still to be effected. Israel and the nations are seen as recognising Christ. It is a witness to what will come about, so the Lord’s reply is: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”, John 12:23 - 24. That underlies what was indicated. It would all depend on His death. The “much fruit” is seen in the family at Bethany and in the political side in Jerusalem, and then in the movement among the Greeks. That is the testimony, and the Lord shows in His reply that [p. 435] without His death none of it could come about, but through His death it will be effected.
AFM You would include the three circles named here in the thought of the corn and wheat? You do not limit it to the assembly?
JT Oh, no, I think it applies to the full result of His death. “Much fruit”.
PL So that it is important to see that the vastness of what is involved here in the bringing in of a family into life, the bringing in of the political system in life and glory, are all good today in the appreciation of His death.
JT Then He says: “He that loves his life shall lose it, and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal”, John 12:25. That is, Philip and Andrew had to see that these great results that were apparent were yet a long way in the future, and it was for them and all who served Christ not to love their lives, for if the corn or wheat was going into the ground it was not for them to reign as kings. The Lord further says: “If any one serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall be my servant. And if any one serve me, him shall the Father honour”, John 12:26. And then He says; “Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say Father, save me from this hour”, John 12:27. It was all very real and present to Him. No doubt Philip and Andrew were greatly encouraged (for they had evangelical hearts) with the evidence of movement, but they had to learn that death lay between them and the great results to which testimony was being borne.
JB The Lord was very careful that they should be intelligent in regard to it, and he sets it all forth in this wonderful way to them.
PL And if the fruits of these wonderful movements of life are to be gathered up, both in the political system in testimony, and in the family relationship, it is necessary that the spirit in which [p. 436] they are inaugurated should be preserved. We must learn what death is to preserve this character of things amongst us.
GAT Are we coming to the point where the assembly comes into evidence? Frequently in the morning meeting we use this expression, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die”, John 12:24 and I have often wondered if this is the commencement of the new company?
JT It is, only it is an answer to Philip and Andrew. They were occupied with the result that was going to come. The Greeks would remind them of the great crop, the great result of the testimony, but the Lord immediately brings in His death, and that it could be only through that. He had to go into the ground.
FL And He brings in their death also. In chapter 14 we get the counterpart of this; “Because I live ye also shall live”, John 14:19.
GAT He is only announcing what He is going to do. Now as the grain of wheat He goes into death, and what is the result?
JT Well, He bears much fruit. The point is, “Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone”, John 12:24. It was announced to these two servants that, notwithstanding they had hailed Him going into Jerusalem and the Greeks had come up, He was still alone. That is the great lesson they had to learn. In order to have others He must fall into the ground and die.
AFM So it shows that all will be on the platform of life, whether it be the family or the political circle, or that which follows in regard to the nations, all will be on the platform of life.
JT And that life out of death.
GAT Well, what did He find in connection with death? Did He find the assembly, I mean?
JT The assembly comes out of the ground [p. 437] as it were. As He says here: “But if it die, it bears much fruit”, John 12:24. The assembly had no actual existence until Christ died and rose again.
PL So the death period you spoke about relates to the general and universal position. Today everything lies in what is spiritual, in the life scene found in John 20. Outwardly Christ is still in death, and the assembly is being formed out of Him.
JT Yes; so that chapter 12 winds up the whole case in regard to Israel. There is the complete testimony of life presented to them and then you have results. That is, you have results for the sake of testimony — not general results, but the indication of what would be general. As regards the mass of the people the chapter shows that they were wholly unmoved, as it says: “But though he had done so many signs before them, they believed not on him, that the word of the prophet Esaias might be fulfilled, Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” John 12:37 - 38 There was no general effect as yet. Things are revealed and hence the company that was to form the assembly is taken up in the next chapter, and in the chapters that ensue the Lord instructs them, as one might say, on the principles of Deuteronomy. He is saying, in effect, Now you are to go into the land. Israel is not coming in yet, you are to go in. But how go in? These chapters are to prepare them for the land in the spiritual sense, and this chapter we have read indicates to us that, the education having been gone through, they are made acquainted with their nobility. They are no less in His mind than His brethren. His Father is theirs, and His God is theirs.
WB-s Would you say a word about the kind of death He died? We get it three times in John, in chapters 3, 8, and 12, His being “lifted up”. What is the signification in each case?
JT I think it is like the court in the tabernacle.
[p. 438] It is between earth and heaven, as the brazen altar was between the gate of the tabernacle and the tabernacle itself — where God dwelt. It was in the court. So He is a spectacle. He is lifted up from the earth, and, as lifted up there, He is the gathering centre. He says, I will draw all unto Me. In chapter 3 He is lifted up for life; here He is a gathering centre.
HG Would you say that in a way the thought of the chapter is the potentiality of the seed, or the corn of wheat? Then you get the way it is multiplied, bringing about the dignity, as you said, of the brethren. I mean they are marked by death. You referred to the brazen altar just now, the thought of suffering; it was covered with a purple cloth, speaking of the dignity that attaches to the suffering. I do not see how there is going to be power with the brethren except they move in the same direction that He moved in.
JT There must be correspondence with Him, so after the Lord speaks of their following Him, He says, “But on account of this have I come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, I both have glorified and will glorify it again”, John 12:27 - 28. The glory of the Father’s name coming in is a wonderful incentive. It refers, I think, to the resurrection of Lazarus and the resurrection of Christ. The announcement out of heaven is a wonderful encouragement. If you are on the line of correspondence with Christ you are under the eye of heaven.
FL I think this “I, if I be lifted up ... will draw all to me”, John 12:32 is like the first of Colossians — “all things”. That is, the whole universe is drawn and compacted in connection with His being lifted up.
JT I think the idea is an astronomical one, meaning that there are certain corresponding things in the atoms to the centre. The Lord is the Centre, but He is the centre in this way. Am I to be drawn [p. 439] to One lifted up on a cross ignominiously? What a testimony it is to the corresponding thing in me if I am drawn to One like that — not a glorified One, but One lifted ignominiously from the earth, a spectacle between heaven and earth.
HG “As dying, and behold we live”, 2 Corinthians 6:9.
WCR It produced a moral law of gravity.
JT That is what I was thinking. There is a correspondence in the atoms drawn to the Centre.
HG The Lord is practically taking the position Moses took the last few months of his life. If you are going to compose this company, “My brethren”, this is the state you are going to be in; if you are going into the land you must have manners suitable for it.
JT Yes, so this chapter, you might say, is the altar and the next the laver.
HG I was thinking the Corinthians had not the manners. They were reigning as kings.
JT They were not in keeping with this. The apostle says: “For I think that God has set us the apostles for the last, as appointed to death. For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but ye prudent in Christ: we weak, but ye strong: ye glorious, but we in dishonour. To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are in nakedness, and buffeted, and wander without a home, and labour, working with our own hands. Railed at, we bless; persecuted, we suffer it; insulted, we entreat; we are become as the offscouring of the earth, the refuse of all, until now”, 1 Corinthians 4:9 - 13. In spite of the ignominy, they were held to Christ.
WCR Was the laver not absent in Corinth?
JT I think he had to bring it in. The whole epistle is a sort of laver.
GAT What has all this to say to us at the present [p. 440] time?
JT You see in the thirteenth chapter to the end there were several things brought in by the Lord as educational, so as to prepare us for the great truth that we have in our chapter. That is, we belong to the scene above. I am not exactly speaking now of the place in heaven, but of what morally is above. The twentieth chapter describes our nobility, and these chapters are the education that leads up to that.
JB He says, “My Father’s house”. That refers to the place above.
JT Yes, but the twentieth chapter is rather occupied with what is morally above.
PL So He is taking them past every piece of furniture in the tabernacle, commencing, as you said, with the brazen altar and culminating in the ark in the presence of God in John 20.
AFM Would you just say a word about the other chapters? You have given us the twelfth and thirteenth, would you mind going on to the twentieth?
JT The fourteenth is the priest, you see. That is, He goes above. If He does not go away the Comforter will not come, but, “If I go”, He says, “I will send him”, John 16:7. I think as a priest He takes account of us in that way, and if we pray for anything in His name we get it. That corresponds with the altar of incense, as you might say, but it is seen more fully in chapter 17. Then you have the results of that in the fruit-bearing of the vine. You see now that Israel is superseded by Christ in the fifteenth chapter, and in the sixteenth it is the position in testimony — militarily; then in the seventeenth He is the High Priest Godward. In the fourteenth I think it is manward in the gift of the Spirit, but in the seventeenth Godward.
EHT How does all this affect us at the present time? Is it on the line of sacrifice?
JT You will have to find how it affects you [p. 441] prayerfully before God. The point is to get the thing as it is. To get the good of what is presented you must take it up with the Lord. The thing is to see how it is set forth. You see the wonderful things set here for the company who are to enter in in the twentieth chapter; then you get to God about it. It is an immense thing to see the import of these chapters 13 to 19. After chapter 17 it is the ark. That chapter is the priest at the altar of incense. Then in the eighteenth chapter He says, “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way”, John 18:8. It is like the ark. When the camp was to move the ark went before. It is a remarkable thing that in the primary regulations in the book of Numbers there is nothing said as to the ark going before. So the tenth chapter suggests the activity of divine love from itself, without being governed by law. You cannot govern God by law. He acts for Himself. So the ark moved out itself, as it were, and went three days’ journey before them. So the Lord says when the band comes to take Him, “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way”. He says, “I am he”, and “they went backward and fell to the ground”, John 18:6. The enemies are “scattered”, the ark is moving. That is what John presents to us. It was in the presence of the disciples. Moses said when the ark went forward, “Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; and let them that hate thee flee before thee”, Numbers 10:35. That is what happened in John 18. In the nineteenth the ark is in the hands of the Philistines; there was no one there to protect it, but it shows itself in the majestic dignity of the Lord as before the high priests and before Pilate. His majesty shines, you know, but He dies. That is chapter 19. Well now, in the twentieth the ark is over Jordan; they are now to go into the land.
AFM How does it get there?
JB “What ailed thee, O thou sea, [p. 442] that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?” Psalm 114:5 That is it — Psalm 114. Jordan is driven back in the presence of the Lord. Then, referring again to the types, I think Joshua comes in at this point; the book of Joshua helps us to understand the man, or order of man that inherits the land. Hence the reproach of Egypt is rolled away. That is the circumcision. It is not simply my sins that are rolled away, but all I am as having been connected with Egypt is blotted out. I have no previous history in that sense; I am a heavenly man.
AFM Now Mary, as a figure, comes in there, does she not, when the Lord calls her, “Mary”, and says, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father”? She reaches that in relation to what the Lord says, “Go to my brethren and say unto them: I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”.
JT Yes, the kind of persons that are to possess the land are indicated in that name — brethren of Christ.
Ques Does the breathing give capability to take in the revelation?
JT Yes, the breathing qualifies you for the greatness of the revelation. It also enables us to represent Christ here. “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” — this is the Spirit that is to mark us.
GAT Is this the first time He says, “My brethren”, in this gospel?
JT In this way, yes. You get His brethren after the flesh referred to; and the disciples are referred to in this way in the other gospels, but in the other gospels the features of the brethren are more moral, doing the will of God, etc.
WCR The breathing in John 20 is unique. In Ezekiel 37 the “dry bones” live. Then the thing will have widened out. Is that right?
JT Quite; the breath comes into them there.
[p. 443] You have not the same intimacy in the transaction in Ezekiel, but it is the same principle.
FL I suppose the thought of brethren is in the seventeenth chapter: “I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them”, John 17:26.
WB-s What is the difference between association and union? We get union in the epistle to the Ephesians, is it not association here?
JT Association is with persons; our association with Him is as His companions. Union is a collective thing.
PL And has display more in view. The bride is united to the exalted Man, but association is with the ascending One, with the Son of God and has in view what is inward, for the satisfaction of divine love.
JT Yes.
GAT Why does He put “My Father and your Father” first?
JT Because family relationships are in view. These denote our greatest and most blessed privileges.
AFM The breathing has reference to their going out, that they should go forth in the same spirit in which He was here: “As the Father sent me forth, I also send you”. They were to go forth in the gracious spirit of this heavenly sent One.
JMcK We have been led step by step until we come to the twentieth chapter, and could there he anything greater on earth than what comes out here?
JT That is my view of it.
JMcK Moses in his song referred to “the mountain of thine inheritance”, Exodus 15:17. It was never reached until the twentieth of John, was it? It is heaven on earth.
RSS So association is really the highest blessing that we are brought into, [p. 444] is it not?
JT It is what we are within.
RSS And as our brother was saying, it is association with the Son of God. Is union not rather connected with Christ?
JT I think that is right. Union is Paul’s ministry. Association, of course, is also found with Paul, but it is plainly what John has in view. He presents the persons.
RSS What you were saying earlier is striking, that we do not exactly get the assembly in John but we get the persons that form it; and they are seen in family relationships.
HG Has not union more in view what is for the pleasure of Christ, but association is for the pleasure of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?
JT Yes; the assembly is united to Christ as of Him; she is His fulness.
PL Would you say that what is for Christ as man (the assembly in union with Him) will work out for God in glory, in relation to display; but, association with the Son of God in life works out rather in compensation to God in the relationships of love?
JT Yes, I think so. I think what is for God is left undefined; it has to be found out. That is, love finds its own way. There is necessarily much involved in the chapter that is not stated. What John has immediately in view is bringing God into this world as a testimony to men, so that after the breathing the Lord immediately sends the disciples out, as the Father had sent Him. This corresponds with the coming of the city from God, out of heaven. Before we are sent out we must know what it is to be within. That is, before I am for God here in testimony I must know what it is to be for Him, for His own satisfaction, I think I get nobility for that in the message, and I am qualified for the message by the Spirit I [p. 445] receive.
WB-s You get the first day of the week in this chapter. Before the sabbath is always referred to. Does this give a signification to the order of things in this chapter?
JT The first day of the week is a suggestion of our own period. The doors are shut — the Jews are shut out on the first day of the week; but eight days afterwards there is nothing said about the Jews being shut out.
PL They are brought in in Thomas.
RSS And eight days after, which is Jewish.
JB This would bring in a present reality in the twentieth of John — the first day of the week.
FL I suppose the first day of the week was indicated for the first time in Leviticus 22, having reference to Christ in resurrection, the beginning of a new order of things. I was thinking of the first fruit offering, the sheaf of the first-fruits, the first day after the sabbath.
JT That is, “When ye be come into the land ... and shall reap”, Leviticus 23:10. Now what may be noticed here is what we have already referred to in these meetings, that is, the importance of looking at the saints in an abstract way. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, you find a good deal recorded about the disciples in connection with the resurrection that is very objectionable, whereas John occupies us almost exclusively with the fruit of the work of God in them, and we shall never arrive at assembly privilege without that. John does not say anything about the unbelief that marked them, or their being afraid. He occupies us almost exclusively, as I said, with the effect of the work of God in them. It is the persons, viewed as the result of all that went before. Hence He says to Mary, “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God”. That is the message. Well, she goes and tells these things to the disciples, and then it says, “When therefore [p. 446] it was evening on that day, which was the first day of the week, and the doors shut where the disciples were, through fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst”. It is not a question of their being assembled or having any corporate position; they were so many persons, but so many persons with this light in their souls. Just as He had come to Bethany because of Lazarus — “Where Lazarus was ... whom he raised” John 12:1 — now He comes where the disciples were, but what disciples? Such as had all this light in their souls. These are the disciples.
GAT Do you get any thought there as to why we come together on the first day of the week?
JT Oh, yes, this is a sort of pattern.
HG It was more Balaam’s viewpoint, consequent upon the work of the Spirit. “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel”, Numbers 23: 21.
JT There is no entering into the truth of the assembly unless it is entered into in this abstract way.
RSS How does what you have said agree with the very full account John gives of Peter’s breakdown?
JT He does, but then you see that is not in this chapter. I was speaking of what comes out in connection with the resurrection. Here we have the spiritual result of our Lord’s resurrection.
JB “My brethren” would be entirely as of the corn of wheat that fell into the ground.
JT Yes, you connect the persons wholly with the work of God in them, whether that be much or little.
PL That to you is the person, and we could not touch one another spiritually in a mixed condition otherwise.
JT You could not have the assembly worked out, nor what is suitable to God without that. The Lord says, “Go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. He is not occupied with their failure. He is viewing them according to the work of God.
GWH Moses’ face shone because of God’s thoughts about the people in the mount. He is viewing them now and designating them according to what they are in the mind of God.
JMcK They are to be in all the dignity of that.
JT And it was to them He came. He came to where these persons were.
AL All through the gospel He links Himself up with the work of God. “He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit”, 2 Corinthians 5: 5.
JT And so Balaam says: “At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought?” Numbers 23: 23. What I may have done is another matter; what God has wrought is the great result.
AL It is so blessed to see the Lord Jesus in all this: how beautiful His movements are in this gospel!
AFM So the last verse of our chapter would suggest one who had arrived at this, not only having the light of it but in a concrete way. These signs are written, it says, “that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”.