DIVINE TEACHING
[p. 175] DIVINE TEACHING
Luke 10:21-42; Luke 11:1-13; Hebrews 2:14-18
In the two previous lectures we had before us the thought of the Kingdom and the House. If God sets up a kingdom, which He has done, there is the house of the kingdom. It is not simply that God has established the reign of grace; but that He dwells, in order that there may be blessing: “there he commanded the blessing, life for evermore”. The Lord Jesus spoke of the same thing: “I know that his commandment is eternal life”. God commands the blessing where He has set up His dwelling place, and that has become true in Christianity; the blessing is connected with God’s house. In the millennium the same principle will hold good; when the world to come is displayed, there will be the house of the kingdom: two thoughts are presented in the Psalms and the Prophets, Jehovah reigns, and Jehovah dwells in Zion. You find those thoughts connected at the present time with the house of God. It is plain that blessing cannot be outside of the house of God.
The point before me now is divine teaching: that follows on the establishment of the house. It is a point of great interest to all of us, because divine teaching is that by which we are formed. We all have to be formed; you may have an apprehension of the grace of God, but you may not be formed. The fact is that divine teaching comes in so that we may be formed for God. I cannot insist too much upon the importance of this, for what we are for God is the result of what God has formed; no one is beyond that for God. Whatever sense a person may have of the grace of God, the stature of no one is a bit beyond what he is by God’s formative work. A person may [p. 176] have been really converted and brought into the enjoyment of the grace of God; but the sense of that that may grow old, and it has grown old with a great many people. If a Christian is to be maintained in freshness, there has to come in that which is produced by the formative power of divine teaching, and one does not grow old in that. There is nothing more important to us as Christians than to apprehend the formative power of the Spirit of God. That was God’s thought even in regard to Israel: He brought them into the wilderness that He might teach them judgements and statutes; and they were to be formed by them.
In the passage I have read we get a parable and two incidents; they are grouped together, in order, by the grouping, to convey to us a certain picture. In the parable of the Good Samaritan — which is peculiar to this gospel — Christ presents Himself to us under the idea of neighbour. He is neighbour to the man who has need of Him. In the following incident, Christ is seen as Revealer. In the house of Martha, Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word. Then in the beginning of the eleventh chapter we see Christ still in another character, and that is as Teacher: He teaches His disciples to pray. Now I believe the object of it was, that Christ intended to show the means by which the new Man was to be produced — a new man where the old man was. It would be easy enough for God to produce a new man; but the point before God was to produce a new man where the old was. The old man was myself; and what God has set to work to do, in regard to Christians, is to produce a man of a new order in the very place where the old order was. The truth in Jesus is the having put off the old man, and put on the new. All that which is brought before us by the evangelist is in order that we may apprehend how the new man is formed. There are two things about the new man: one is a new susceptibility, and the other a new capability.
[p. 177] If I were to take a dog, or any other intelligent animal, I could not communicate to it the susceptibility or the capability of a man.
Now if God can bring to pass in a man a susceptibility and a capability which never belonged to that man, in principle you have a new or different man. Whether as regards man before the fall, or after the fall, man as God made him had not the susceptibility or the capability of which I speak. I go a point farther: if he had remained what God made him, he might never have had this susceptibility and capability. The object of the passage I have read is to show by what means the new man is formed — the new man which is after God’s nature in righteousness, and holiness of truth.
This is a wonderful part of the gospel; and it hangs on what the Lord said in the first two verses which I read: “I thank thee, O Father”, etc. I think the Lord introduces that thought because He was about to bring to light Christianity; therefore He speaks of the revelation of the Father, which is the great characteristic truth in Christianity. In the eighth and ninth chapters you do not get exactly Christianity, but the kingdom. In the eighth chapter we have the mysteries of the kingdom, and in the ninth, the vision of the kingdom. Many people have come into the mysteries of the kingdom that never come into the vision of the kingdom. In order to see the kingdom, you need to apprehend the glory of the Lord. The kingdom is bound up with Christ, as Lord, at the right hand of God, and the Holy Spirit down here. The kingdom is for God: it is the sway of God. But in the tenth and eleventh chapters, the kingdom is no longer the point: we have not what is for God, but what is for man; what is brought to light is what Christ would produce in man; the kind and order of man He would produce, and how He would produce him. This is what I want to make plain if I can, the [p. 178] power by which the new man is brought to pass where the old man is.
The first great principle is the neighbour, and the work of the neighbour is to set us perfectly at rest in Christ, and I do not believe that can be until we get the thought of the Priest. I do not think authority would ever give perfect rest in Christ. God’s authority must be maintained; but authority will not exactly attach the heart to Christ; what will attach the heart to Christ is the knowledge of priesthood. You apprehend in Him a neighbour; a neighbour is not a lord. In the kingdom the question is of lordship and authority; a neighbour is one who lives next door to you, one upon whom you can in pressure fall back, on whose services you can count. The Lord is in the picture showing the transition from law to grace, and grace brings in the thought of the priest, and the neighbour is almost equivalent to the priest. It is the apprehension of Christ as being on our part, as having come close to us, so that you can always rely upon His service. If you have not apprehended Christ in that light, you have not the gain of the neighbour. Many confess Him as Lord who have very little apprehension of Him as neighbour. His service is effectual so long as you are down here. The Samaritan took up the man that fell among thieves, relieved him, and then carried him and cared for him as long as he was in want of care. That is what Christ is to us as neighbour: we are at His charges until He comes. He is the resource of His people. If I want succour, or sympathy, or encouragement, I fall back upon Christ: I can come boldly to the throne of grace. If you are in trouble through bereavement or loss, do not turn in the first place to man: turn to Christ; fall back upon the neighbour, then you will find that grace will work in others, so that you get sympathy on the part of the saints. You get more good and gain by turning to Christ than by turning to man; for He [p. 179] can command sympathy and sensibility towards us in the hearts of His people.
Now the point of the passage which I read in Hebrews is to show us the qualifications of the Priest. There are three ideas connected with the Priest in that passage: firstly, He delivers from the fear of death; secondly, He has made atonement for the sins of the people; thirdly, He succours those that are tempted. That is what is ministered to us through the Priest. I stand no longer in the fear of death, for death is now the gateway that leads to the Lord. Then there is the sense of forgiveness; He is a merciful and faithful high Priest that has made atonement for the sins of the people; and then the qualification for this office is that, having been tempted, He can succour the tempted. Everyone will admit that you have an efficient neighbour — one who can deliver from the fear of death, give the sense of forgiveness, and minister succour. What marks the present time is the ministration, not of law, but of grace. Christ has come down to where we were, in order that we might know Him in delivering power, as ministering to us the sense of forgiveness, and as able to succour us when we are tempted. I do not think people really understand grace if they do not apprehend the efficiency of Christ as neighbour, so that in every emergency and temptation into which we may come, we can avail ourselves of the One who is close to us. This is all connected with priesthood: priesthood is an essential part of the kingdom. This is brought out in the Old Testament, and will be made good in the millennium, for Christ will be a Priest upon His throne, and the counsel of peace is between the king and the priest. You get this thought in Zechariah.
Mere authority would not always help us. The authority of Moses brought the children of Israel under the discipline of God; priesthood had to come in, and Aaron was there: when authority could not [p. 180] help them, priesthood did. When we come into trial and temptation, authority alone would not avail us: we have a neighbour who is serviceable and efficient, who can sympathise with us in our infirmities; and that is the priest. If we laid hold of that, I think we should be restful and quiet down here; for whatever trouble or trial may come along, at all events there is One to whom we can always turn, so that we are never left desolate. Young people with plenty of health and vigour do not much know what trial is; but we see people sometimes come under overwhelming trial, and one might wonder how they will get on? The fact is, they do get on; they avail themselves of priesthood, and Christ affects the hearts of others, so that they get an amount of sympathy and support of which they never dreamt. They get it to a large extent through the saints; we turn to the throne of grace, and Christ, as Priest, affects the hearts of His people towards one another.
Under all circumstances, you may be restful in spirit. If you are not, you do not rightly come under the light of Christ; when people are like Martha, fussy and unrestful, they do not come under the influence of Christ. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word. What could the word of the Son be? I think the word of the Son could be only one, and that is, to reveal God: I cannot understand the word of Christ in any other light. That was His peculiar testimony. The law and prophets declared the will of God and spoke of things to come, but they did not declare God. Who could declare God but Himself? God became His own testimony in order that He might be declared. All the way through, that was the testimony of Christ; it went right on to His death, for after all the great declaration of God was in the death of Christ. The veil of the temple was rent in twain for God was declared. It was absolutely impossible for the Jewish system to go on any longer.
[p. 181] God had come out, in order that man might go in. That is what I understand by the testimony of Christ.
I think Mary was affected by His grace; she had learnt that Christ was neighbour. If the thought of Christ being neighbour to you has inspired your heart with confidence in Him, the next thing is that you will want to come abidingly under His influence: to be in the position in which Mary was found. His word is not so many articulations, but it is that which is expressed in Himself, the influence of which He will bring to bear upon you; He would bring the light and love of God to bear upon your heart. I have no doubt but that is what He brought home to the heart of Mary. Martha was cumbered about much serving. It is not simply that she was busy with the common occupations of life, but they distracted her. If you are in danger of being distracted from the influence of Christ, you ought to look to God for grace that He may deliver you from that which tends to distract you, so that you may be able to attend on the Lord with undistracted mind. Then you begin to get discernment of the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. It is amazing that people can be indifferent to the love of God — to see the thousand and one distractions which find place in their hearts, so that they fail to occupy the place which Mary had. It is a most blessed place to be in: I think I may say I covet it; I would delight to sit at His feet, to be instructed in the love of God. No one can really instruct you in the love of God except Christ Himself.
Now I turn to chapter 11: 1 - 13. In this passage it is plain that Jesus assumes the place of teacher. When it is a question of making God known, He is not exactly teacher, but revealer. When it is a question of our approach to God, He takes the place of teacher; we get lessons from Christ Himself. I could not tell you exactly the manner of His teaching; but He teaches us to articulate “Father”. He became man, and in that place He articulated “Father”, and He teaches us to do the same.
In Mary I see a susceptibility which never belonged to the natural man, not even before the fall. It is the fact of our having fallen under the power of evil which, when God begins to work, really brings about a susceptibility which man, as God created him, never had. I do not believe it would have been possible for man, as God created him, to have entered into the love of God in the way that we can who have fallen away from God; God uses even the depth to which man has fallen to create a susceptibility to His love. When I recognise the reality and the greatness of the fall, and see how God has come in to meet it in His grace, I can appreciate the love of God. I have no doubt that Adam had a great sense of the goodness and beneficence of God; but there was not the susceptibility to the love of God which there is in a fallen man when God has begun to work in that man.
But in the opening of the eleventh chapter, it is not a question of susceptibility, but of capability: the capability is consequent on the susceptibility. When you become acquainted with the love of God, you are then taught to cry “Abba, Father”. You have come under the influence of Christ that you may be made acquainted with God’s love, and the result is that there is a capability which never belonged to man as God created him. I do not think that Jews in the millennium will cry “Abba, Father”: it is what is peculiar to Christians. As we appreciate the love of God we can freely address Him. If you have the capability of calling upon God as Father, it is really through the teaching of Christ.
The teaching of Christ, in a sense, completes the picture. The man that fell among thieves was taken up in the condition in which he was, but it was that he might be carried and cared for, so that he might [p. 183] have confidence in the neighbour. After that you come under the influence of the word of Christ. He brings you under a completely new influence, not known in that way to an angel — the love of God; He is going to teach you to answer to that influence in the cry, “Abba, Father”; you love God, because He first loved you. Then you get a great expansion of intelligence. You go on to know the things that God has prepared for those that love Him; you get the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the glory of His inheritance, and the greatness of His power. That is what I understand by coming under divine teaching. You are dependent upon Christ for everything. The object is that Christ may bring us so under the influence of His teaching, that our hearts becoming familiar with the love of God, may respond to the love made known to us in the death of Christ.