SUBJECTION

SUBJECTION

2 Thessalonians 2: 7, 8; Luke 1: 38; Luke 2: 1 - 7; 1 Corinthians 15: 24 - 28

What I want to suggest, beloved brethren, is the importance of subjection; and, with the Lord’s help, I would desire to indicate that, if we are to be in accord with the mind of God in any relationship or position in which God has set us, or if we are to be prepared for that eternity that lies ahead into which we are about to enter, subjection is imperative as a state that is wrought in our souls; not simply that as to certain actions, we obey, but that the spring of those actions, is a state of subjection that exists in our souls. One feels the importance of it more because of the intensely solemn moment in which our lot is cast in this world. Without doubt we are rapidly drawing near to the moment that I read of in the epistle to the Thessalonians, when one will be revealed whom the Spirit of God calls by name — “the lawless one”, or, as our ordinary version gives it, “that Wicked”.

There is about to appear the great leader, whose characteristic feature and name is lawlessness, and the darkening influences that will reach a climax with his presence on earth, are already here. The smoke of the pit out of which he comes — for it says that he ascends out of the bottomless pit — is already filling the earth, darkening every right influence that has hitherto governed the minds of men, affecting every relationship where subjection is proper.

In the wisdom of God, from our very birth, we are brought into a position in which subjection is the first feature. As children, the mind of God for children is subjection. The influence of the lawless one is being felt intensely in that relationship. Those of us who have children feel intensely the darkening there. Then, if I refer just for a moment to women, the mind of God for the woman is subjection to the man; but the influence of the lawless one from the pit, is breaking that down. Again, as to the wife, her place according to the mind of God, is subjection to her own husband, that too, is being destroyed. The principle of subjection to the higher powers, is the mind of God in respect of government; it is being undermined everywhere. The principle of subjection of the servant to his master, is being abandoned everywhere. I need not say that that which professes to be the church, is the manifest abandoning that subjection. The awful influences of lawlessness are darkening this scene, and God, I am sure, would save us from it, by conveying to our hearts the blessedness of subjection, not that we accept it as inevitable, but that we accept it as loving it.

Hence I would desire to speak of Christ — the blessed One in whom every thought of God for men finds perfect expression. As the Lord said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me”. Whatever we may consider, everything is expressed perfectly, and can only be learnt perfectly from Christ. Thus I desire, with the Lord’s help, to seek to present subjection, as it is seen in its blessed perfection in Christ, so that, as seeing it in Him, we may learn to love it, and thus get the gain that it brings.

I know that certain features of subjection were expressed here, in measure, before He came; but one loves to think that everything that has been right and of God was but the backward glow of the rising sun. As the sun comes up and we get the present shining of it, there still remain the beams of light that go backward, and every feature that was of God, from Abel onward, was really the beaming of that blessed light, that great light that the Lord speaks of: “The people sitting in darkness has seen a great light” (Matthew 6: 16). The beams of that light went backward, so that everything that was of God from Abel forward, was a ray of that light. The apostle Peter speaks of it, “The Spirit of Christ which was in them” (1 Peter 1: 11), not that we imply it was there, or read it into it, but it was there; the Spirit of Christ was there “in them”. So, if Abel was marked by subjection, which lies behind the Lord calling him “righteous Abel”, it was that which he derived from Christ; and if Abraham was subject to the divine command “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house”, he went out as subject. To Moses God said, “my servant Moses”; and of David He said, “I have found David my servant”; these were men who were subject to God as having the Spirit of Christ. But I wanted just to indicate as the Lord may give grace, some sense of the perfection of subjection as seen in Christ Himself.

So, if we come to the outset of His entrance into time, it is as One who was “from eternity”, whom the Spirit of God speaks as “being in the form of God”. What infinite greatness! Subjection does not apply to the form of God, I need not say; it is for God to command. Innumerable hosts of angels are before Him, as it says, “hearkening unto the voice of his word” (Psalm 103: 20), bending their ears, awaiting the divine command. Of Gabriel it says, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God”, but the form of God has never been seen, and never will be seen, by a creature: “Dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor is able to see; to whom be honour and eternal might. Amen.” (1 Timothy 6: 16). But the One who was in the form of God took a servant’s form. Our hearts cannot take that in. “Subsisting in the form of God”, it says He took — it was a deliberate, definite act — “a bondman’s form”. He took a condition in which subjection could be perfectly expressed. The setting of the passage in Philippians is primarily that the mind was there to do it before the act was consummated. The apostle says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. It was firstly, an act of mind, to take a servant’s form, to come into a condition where subjection could be expressed, to accept the absolute will of God — for that is the idea of a bondman. A bondman is not at liberty to act for himself; a bondman is bound by the will of his master. The word “master” in some places, means despot; it means one who will not brook, who will not tolerate another will. The Lord Jesus took a bondman’s form and was found in fashion as a Man.

Who is there that is suited for the coming in of Christ? What vessel is there that God will use as prepared under His own mighty hand of power, for Him for the entrance of such a One into the world? One indeed of whom it is said, “Lo, I come ... to do thy will, O God”. The Spirit of God selects a certain vessel for this supremely great act, when He should take a “bondman’s form” and be “found in figure as a man”. (Philippians 2: 7, 8)Who is it? The verse I read indicates the suitability of Mary to be such a vessel. She says, “Behold the bondmaid of the Lord”. She corresponded subjectively, with the mind that had decided to take a bondman’s form, the bondmaid corresponding with the Bondman. “Behold the bondmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to thy word”. There was in that beloved woman’s soul, wrought in it subjectively, subjection to the will of God.

Then the Lord Jesus Himself is born as Joseph and Mary are in the very act of expressing subjection, according to the mind of God.

The decree as to the census had gone forth from Caesar Augustus, the alien power that then was, a decree naturally irritant to the heart of any Jew, but recognising the power God had ordained, Joseph and Mary, at cost to themselves that we cannot fully understand, carried out, in subjection God’s mind in relation to the higher powers; and at that very moment the Lord Jesus is found here in this scene, in the very atmosphere and conditions of subjection.

He moves from that point, and we next see Him at twelve years of age, a solemn age, an age that is testing perhaps more than most. The Lord says to Mary consequent upon those twelve years in secret, “Did ye not know that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” He assumes that she would have understood in those twelve years, how imperative it was for Him to be subject to the will of God, that His Father’s business should control and govern Him. Nevertheless, at that very moment it says that He went down to Nazareth and was “subject unto them” — expressing perfectly from twelve years and onward, the mind of God during that period. It says, He “was subject unto them”. What days they were — the eye and heart of God alone can put an estimate upon them! Then He “began to be about thirty years of age”, indicating what those days of subjection were to God, for He says, at the close of them, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found delight”; not “I do find” though that would be true, but “I have”. God had looked upon every one of those days, and the divine estimate is expressed of what that subjection in secret and obscurity was to Him: “in thee, I have found my delight”.

But then we follow Him during those three and a half years, and it is indicated that they are taken account of in days. The Spirit of God suggests in the book of Daniel, a period like them, in which every one of them is remembered: “Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and thirty-five days” (Daniel 12: 12). The days are taken account of, every one of them, and all were days of subjection. They were begun in a way that makes one feel intensely humbled when we compare our days with His. How many of us must feel like Jacob, “few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage”, but that does not in any wise represent those blessed days of His! They may have been few, as men count days — but they were infinitely blessed! They were begun each morning in subjection, as it says, “He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed” (Isaiah 1: 4). Think of that, beloved brethren; every single day, morning by morning, His ear was opened for instruction. It is the Bondman waiting upon His Master whom He loved for instructions for the day. Every single day was like that! No wonder the memorial of them is laid up before God; no wonder that the Lord said that the time would come when men would look to see one of those days just one! If it be that the instruction for one day was that “He must needs go through Samaria” — albeit that the journey brings weariness to Him — there is no question of His subjection — so that at that very moment He says, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me”.

What shall we say of the closing day of those days? One can only remind you of what has been said:

“O day of mightiest sorrow,
Day, of unfathomed grief;
When Thou shouldst taste the horror
Of wrath, without relief:”

that was the last day of the sojourn of Christ here. See Him at the commencement of it, in prayer for instruction, knowing perfectly what that day contained in His own spirit — shrinking from it in a holiness that we adore, yet nevertheless asking for instructions: “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt”. What subjection! We cannot view it save “a stone’s throw” away; not even Peter or James or John could go all the way to contemplate it. He went a stone’s throw beyond any point that they could go. But we see subjection in perfection there, as always. And so He dies: He lays down His life in subjection. One point of view of the death of Christ beyond and outside of the instruments that caused it, is, that He laid down His life in subjection: “I have received this commandment of my Father”. His death was the supreme act of subjection.

One used to think that that act was the end of subjection in Christ, and that ever after it would be rule, it would be command. But, dear brethren, that is not so. Having entered into manhood, He retains manhood in subjection. One view of the resurrection, of His taking His life again in manhood, is, that it is done in subjection: “I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again. I have received this commandment of my Father” (John 10: 18). The commandment covers both the laying it down and the taking it again. Commanded to take it again in resurrection, obedience to that command is expressed in His resurrection. I do not of course refer to that point we love to take account of, that it was the surpassing greatness of the power of God that wrought in Christ in raising Him from the dead, but there is also this view in John 10: 18, that He took it again in subjection to a divine command.

Our thoughts and our hearts would go to the passage we read in 1 Corinthians 15. His present position is “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”; sit there till every single thing is subject to Christ. That is the mind of God for Christ at the present moment. As Pharaoh said to Joseph; “I am Pharaoh”, “only in the throne, will I be greater than thou”, but otherwise no one was to lift their hand or foot without Joseph. That is the position of Christ, and it will continue until everything is subject to Him. God is going to put everything in subjection to Christ, and when everything is subdued, when there is nothing unsubdued in the universe of God, what then? It is beyond us to express — but the Spirit of God says when everything shall have been brought into subjection to Him, then “the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection” (verse 28). We are now in our thoughts touching a little on what we have had before us — “to eternity”; “from eternity, to eternity”. That passage in 1 Corinthians 15 brings us as it were to the door of eternity. What place will the Son have in eternity? One would not dare to say it, if the Spirit of God in the Scripture did not say it, but the Son will be placed, not exactly He will become subject, as by His own act, though that would be true — but He is placed by God in subjection. The Son, the One whom the Father loves, for “the Father loves the Son” — that One who has made God known to our hearts is placed in subjection by God. The One whom we all love to kiss even today, for it says, “Kiss the Son”: the One towards whom the holy affections of the liberated universe will yet express themselves — of Him it says, “the Son also himself shall be placed in subjection”. The underlying condition of all eternity is subjection to God: “from eternity to eternity, thou art God”. Subjection will be the basic condition of the universe eternally. There is an aspect of God’s kingdom that is eternal, as the apostle says, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1: 17). That will be secured to God for ever, as the Son remains for ever in manhood, in subjection to God.

Now, if we are to get the gain of what is in the mind of God for us, there must be subjection. You can see that in the gospel of John, where the Lord comes into the time condition and scene out of eternity. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. Then further, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. What will He not bring in? What will not — such a One bring in as available to men? Who could measure it? No one. The apostle says, “for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace” because of Who had come in. But who got the gain of what He brought in? Those who were subject. Take the good wine — the joy that is never deficient, joy that will continue for ever — who got it? Those who were subject. Mary for .the moment, beloved woman whom all generations call blessed, stepped out of the place of subjection, and said to Him, “They have no wine”. She undertook to direct Him, but the Lord will not allow that, and she accepts the adjustment. She is a woman who can be adjusted, and she says, “Whatever he may say to you, do”. That is subjection. The Lord says, “Fill the waterpots with water”,

and they filled them. “Draw out now”, and they drew out. The lawless mind would have said, Why fill them with water? and, What is the use of drawing them out? But there was subjection, and the good wine was there. Beloved brethren, we only know what the good wine is, as we are subject. And so in chapter 4, the nobleman’s son is ill and about to die, and he comes to the Lord knowing by faith that because of who He was, He could bring in what was needed, and the Lord says, “Go thy way, thy son liveth”; and we read that he went his way. There was subjection, and healing flows from subjection. If there are conditions that require healing, and there are such everywhere — Healing comes in where there is subjection. In chapter 6, where it is a question of food, you have the same principle coming to light. Five thousand men are there, and what does the Lord say? “Make the men sit down”. There is acceptance in subjection of what the Lord says, and the food comes; it comes where there is subjection. In chapter 9, you have the same principle. There is a man born blind and in darkness, but the Lord makes clay and puts it on his eyes, and says to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” which is, “Sent”, and the man went, and washed, and came seeing. Does not that touch the question why some of us do not see? Someone recently said, As long as I live I will not accept that — speaking in regard to light the Lord had given. Could he ever see? Never; till there is subjection, but where there is that, the light will come. It involves subjection not only to the Lord, but as Peter says, “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder” (1 Peter 5: 5). That does not refer merely to years, but to those who have known God longer and better than we. The word is to submit, and light comes where there is subjection. Peter goes on to say, “Yea, all of you be subject one to another”, and that is a basic condition for light to come. The Lord said, “Go,” and the man says, “I went;” the Lord said, “Wash,” and he says, “I washed and do see;” there was subjection.

Again just one more word. The Lord Jesus appears at the grave of Lazarus. Mary and Martha, with a right sense of what such a One as John’s gospel presents, could do, sent for Him, but the Lord remained where He was two days — deliberately allowing the condition to fully manifest itself, and then He went. He comes to the grave, and there was a stone upon it, and the Lord says, Take away the stone. Martha says, No, do not allow the awful condition there to be manifest; hide it. But the Lord says, “Take away the stone,” and it says, “They took therefore the stone away.” Where darkness and corruption have been, life and incorruptibility are brought to light. It is life out of death, only known where there is subjection. We cannot have living conditions without subjection. How often we are like Martha, we shrink from allowing the Lord to uncover or have uncovered, the condition which exists, and which He knows better than we do, but if He uncovers the conditions, it is but to manifest His power, when there is subjection.

May the Lord help us all, not only to accept the principle of subjection as ordained of God for us — but that we may love it, as seeing its beauty and perfection in Christ, and as knowing it is to continue through all eternity — the eternity that is before us. Subjection to God will remain unbroken throughout all eternity, but we will get the gain of what is eternal now, in the measure in which we are prepared to be subject. May the Lord thus help us.