WALKING AS HE WALKED
R.H.B. I seek help as to this matter referred to in verse 6, walking as He walked. John does not give His name, nor does he define what that means, and I think there are things that are left for exercised hearts to discover. There is no doubt, of course, as to who John was referring to, but we might begin with contemplating the immensity, first of all, that the Son of God should have walked on this earth. How much was involved in that, both as regards the making of God known, and the blessing of men. I am sure many things will come into the hearts of the brethren. One was confirmed by the hymn that we sang (Hymn 54) as to the glories of Christ and the offices that He fills; all were reflected in His walk, a walk which was like none other, and yet it is to be continued. The enemy not only sought to destroy Christ personally – very murderous attempts, as we know, were made upon His life – but his aim was to stamp out all remembrance of Him; “When will he die, and his name perish?”, Ps.41:5. We get the divine answer to that in the psalm, “I will make thy name to be remembered throughout all generations” (Ps.45:17), and it is remembered before God in those who walk as He walked.
I thought this passage showed us progressively how we might answer to that. There is the reference first of all to keeping His commandments, and then in verse 5, “whoever keeps his word, in him verily the love of God is perfected”. I am sure we would all desire that the love of God should be perfected in us. Then that leads the apostle to speak of this matter that “he that abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also so to walk”. That was the passage that I particularly had in mind. I referred to the passages in the gospel because John speaks of the momentous matter that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. Jesus lived among men in the ordinary day to day circumstances of life in which we are. People may say, ‘the world is not the same today as it was then’, but the same issues among men now were extant then. Jesus lived among men, and John speaks of contemplating His glory, the distinctive glory of the Son of God. The nearest that John could describe it was “as of an only-begotten with a father”. That was the character of the walk of Jesus that impressed the apostle. Then John the baptist, “looking at him as he walked”, pointed Him out as “the Lamb of God”. That led to persons leaving the baptist. They were disciples of John’s, but became followers of the Lord Jesus, and they wanted to know where He lived; they wanted to know the secret of that life and that walk.
I would like to stimulate that as a desire with us all, to know the secret of that holy life, a life that provided such pleasure for God that went up to God in its fragrance. It provided a testimony to all that God is, and it provided great blessing for mankind. Now we might say that it is fanciful that we should be expected to walk as He walked; but John does not only say it is not fanciful but he says we “ought”, and it struck me that there are ‘oughts’ in Christianity. You sometimes see the idea that persons have of grace and the dispensation of grace, that it is a free for all, but Scripture brings out some ‘oughts’. If what John is speaking about is taken up, then this would be the result of it. It is not something that we work up to or contrive but it is something that is brought about as the things that John speaks about in the passage are answered to. I would be glad to know what the brethren think about that.
J.A.B. Is the way in which John the baptist drew his disciples’ attention to Jesus as the Lamb of God the key to doing what we ought to do? It is the power of love, the power of attraction to a Man in whom God has delight. We have had several meetings recently in this area bringing the glories and beauties of the Lord Jesus before us. As we answer in our affections to the Man who has been marked out by God as the One in whom His delight is, will we be able to answer to the ‘oughts’?
R.H.B. Yes. It is not a legal obligation like the Old Testament, but it is the result of coming under His influence. So where we read John says, “hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments”. To know Him is to love Him, and to love Him is to seek to be pleasing to Him. I think it begins there. There is much that professes the name of Christ yet some of it is odious to Him. He speaks to Laodicea of what He is about to spew out of His mouth (Rev.3:16); it was odious to Christ, but there is what is true. We are in days of public breakdown, as we are only too aware, but I think John helps us to identify what is genuine and to answer to it.
G.B.G. Is the “ought” a test of Christian responsibility”? You said there are ‘oughts’ in Scripture, and the word is used even in relation to the Lord Jesus. “I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business”, Luke 2:49?
R.H.B. Yes, and He said to the two going to Emmaüs, “Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things” (Luke 24:26). They said they had hoped He was the One who was going to redeem Israel, that there was going to be a re-establishment of Israel, but to suffer these things was an obligation that the Lord answered to.
G.B.G. The Lord Jesus is an example for us. He was in perfect communion with His Father; flowing from that, He ought to be occupied in His Father’s business.
R.H.B. I think that is interesting, because it says in John, “the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak; and I know that his commandment is life eternal”, John 12:50. So the Lord was here as a Man filling out the commandments of the One He loved.
G.B.G. It says here, “he abides in him”. Would that be vital? As you inferred, we cannot fill out each “ought” in a legal way. There must be something in us lying behind it – our abiding in Christ, nearness to Him, enjoying His company. Christian responsibility flows out of that.
R.H.B. Yes, so these are not commandments as in the law that were required for justification; these are commandments that become that because of affection for the Person whose commandments they are. It seems to me that it comes down to the place that Christ has in the heart. This is the writer who, though he was an apostle, hardly ever speaks of himself thus, but nearly always as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and the disciple to whom he was attached. John lived in the consciousness of that, so that is how he regarded himself.
W.M.P. “In him verily the love of God is perfected”; does that connect with your thought that affection for Christ is the secret of our devotion and commitment?
R.H.B. Yes. What is your impression of that expression, the love of God being perfected in a person?
W.M.P. I wondered if it means that there is nothing to hinder its operation in the person. The flesh that is in us would seek to hinder the formative effect of the love of God, but the inner person means that there is something formed in them. Is that what you think?
R.H.B. Yes. Do you think it conveys the sense of the ultimate object of God’s ways being brought about? If He has taken you up for blessing initially, His love that was behind it is perfected when this point is reached; it is a sort of end in view.
D.S. Is there a distinction between keeping His commandments and keeping His word? There seems to be some progression in souls as they commit themselves to the commandments. It says in John’s gospel, “If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will beg the Father and he will give you another Comforter”, John 14:16. It seems that the commandment is a regulating thing which helps us to move in relation to the word, which is a formative thing.
R.H.B. That is helpful. I have always thought that the commandments perhaps more relate to our relationships with one another; so the Lord says, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another”, John 15:12. That can be a fraught area in our relations with one another, and that is why the thought of divine authority comes into it, so that I do not just love those whom I find agreeable and dislike others, but I am commanded by the One that I love to love His own. I wondered whether the word that the Lord speaks of might perhaps more refer to what He has brought out in the way of making God known. I am just putting that out for the brethren to think about. The commandment seems to relate to our relationships together, and then keeping His word is treasuring what the Lord has disclosed and revealed, something that was never known before. So Philadelphia is commended by the Lord for having kept His word and not denied His name (Rev.3:8); it was cherished amidst the apostasy.
A.P.G. The first time in the Scriptures that “the word” is used is in Genesis 15 to Abram. God says, “I am thy shield, thy exceeding great reward” (v.1). It is some fresh touch as to Himself. Would that mark the word?
R.H.B. Yes, that is helpful. The Lord was that practically to His disciples, He was their shield and their exceeding great reward. He said to the Father in John 17, “those thou hast given me I have guarded” (v.12). He stood between them and the Pharisees when they criticised the disciples for eating the ears of corn on the sabbath (Matt.12:3-8). The Lord answered that; He was their shield, but He was also their reward. That is very much a Christian’s knowledge of God.
A.P.G. The Lord’s commandment would keep us in a safe area in this adverse scene, but His word is more intimate and brings us nearer to Himself.
R.H.B. Yes, I thought that; there is an intimacy about it. It says in the gospels, for example, “as they were listening to these things, he added and spake a parable”, Luke 19:11. You get the impression that perhaps if they had not been listening, they might not have had that, but as they were listening, there was a further intimate disclosure of His word.
B.W.L. Do we see it too in John 13? Peter recognised that John was closer to the Lord than he was. John asked the question, and he received the answer because he was near to the Lord.
R.H.B. Yes, it is a good example, and it is John who recognised the Lord at the end of the gospel; “It is the Lord”, John 21:7. He is the writer for our time, the man of whom the Lord said, “If I will that he abide until I come”, John 21:22. The length of the dispensation, the longest ever, in some sense presents its own challenges, but the challenges are met, it seems to me, by the writings of this apostle.
J.A.B. Would the word, as answered to, lead to a formation of the work of God in believers’ souls, and is that how the love of God is perfected? We were reading in Matthew recently, and the question was asked how the Lord could say, “Be ye therefore perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”, Matt.5:48. A brother explained that it is only really the work of God in the believer that can be spoken of in that way, but as that work is formed as a result of answering to the love of God, the work in itself is perfect. It is a great encouragement that, by the Spirit, there is something in every believer which can be identified as entirely pleasing to God.
R.H.B. Yes, and the word “perfect” has that meaning. There is what is of that character in us even though there may be other things of a negative character. That is the triumph of God’s grace, that the walk of One who was sinless and intrinsically holy should be reflected in those who are not. We are not intrinsically holy, we have the flesh in us. We often say we are in a mixed condition. But the triumph of grace is that the life and walk of that Man should be perpetuated before God.
J.T.B. Does the reference in the address to Philadelphia to “the word of my patience” (Rev.3:10) suggest an ongoing communication from the Lord Jesus as to fidelity in this scene? It is not just to keep patience, or be patient, but it is the word of His patience. It suggests what is constant, and as receiving that word it emboldens us and strengthen us.
R.H.B. I think that is very good, so that we are waiting for what He is waiting for. I was thinking about how you get that reference in the epistle to the Thessalonians about our hearts being directed “into the patience of the Christ”, 2 Thess.3:5. It is His patience. Perhaps we do not often think of that. We think of waiting for the Lord’s coming and feel perhaps that we are being very patient in waiting, but with what eagerness, and I say that reverently, with what eagerness the Lord Himself is waiting for that moment. Does that lie behind it?
J.T.B. Yes, I was thinking of that scripture, “the patience of the Christ”. What it means to Him anticipatively, what it will mean to Him, to have the assembly with Him, and that is always, speaking reverently, in His heart. Therefore as we assimilate the word of His patience, are we imbued with similar feelings?
R.H.B. Yes, He is waiting to have His assembly and also, would you say, to be vindicated. The Lord was not vindicated here, and the righteousness of God requires that He should be publicly vindicated in the scene where He was humiliated. The righteousness of God requires that this One who was “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt.11:29) should be publicly vindicated. A brother drew attention recently to that word at the cross. Those standing round the cross said, “let him save him now if he will have him”, Matt.27:43. What a terrible word that was. That must be answered, there must be a divine answer to that publicly, and it will be seen in the personal vindication of Christ, but it will be seen in those who are associated with Him, morally qualified to be associated with Him because they have walked as He walked.
J.T.B. One of the four things which are comely in going in Proverbs is the he-goat (Prov.30:31). It is the way Jesus walked; “I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s sons”, Ps.69:8.
R.H.B. I would like you to open that up – the walk of the he-goat. What do you see in that?
J.T.B. Just that despite the adversity to which Jesus was subjected, He walked in full obedience to His God and Father’s will in that way. There should be a reflection of that in our walk, do you think?
R.H.B. Yes, I do. As you think of the walk of Jesus, it must have been a purposeful walk. John presents Jesus as One who was walking through the world and out of it. He had the Father before Him. You get that in chapter 13, where it says, “knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father” (v.1) and then, “knowing that the Father had given him all things into his hands, and that he came out from God and was going to God” (v.3). There must have been a reflection of that in the walk of Jesus. He came from a different source. He was the heavenly One. The other gospels perhaps present Him more as walking towards the cross, but John particularly presents that holy One as walking out of this world to the Father, and taking His own with Him.
G.B.G. At the end of chapter 7, He says that “I go to him that has sent me” (v.33).
R.H.B. Yes, very good. “I go to him that has sent me”: that is remarkable. It must have impressed these men that His was a walk like no other. It was not just occupied with the mundane and the day to day, but even in the mundane, there was the heavenly character of a walk that had an object in view in it.
N.J.H. While it was characteristic of His walk, was He walking towards the One who had sent Him in John 1? I was thinking that John the baptist had great light and power given to him, but he did not have the privilege of walking or abiding in Christ.
R.H.B. No. The Lord spoke of John’s greatness as a prophet, but we have a greater privilege, and with the privilege comes a responsibility. I thought the word “ought” would link the privilege with the responsibility.
J.S.S. Could you help please as to what it says in verse 6; “He that says He abides …”. It is not ‘He that abides’. Why is that?
R.H.B. I thought that John in his writings helps us in the day we are in, where there is so much mixture which there was not at the beginning. Persons who professed to be believers in the early days were genuinely so, but that is not the case now. You get persons taking up positions in the church publicly who are openly avowed atheists. That was never the case at the beginning, or even going back to the beginning of the recovery. Men like Mr Darby and others who were clergymen in the church were in the church at a time when most were godly men, pious men. They may have been misguided but they were godly men, but that is not the day we are in. There are people making claims, making much profession, but what is the reality? I think that is a challenge for us. We have come into some of the greatest light, but with that light comes a responsibility in the “ought”. But give us your impression of it please.
J.S.S. I was thinking that if there is to be any power in testimony, the evidence has to be in our walk, that it is consistent with what we say.
R.H.B. Yes, that puts it much more succinctly, and I think it is a challenge. It is a common expression in the world that people talk the talk but they do not walk the walk. I think that is never more a challenge than for those who have been brought into the greatest light of the truth.
T.R.C. Is “whoever keeps his word” a current ongoing matter? Paul writes to Timothy, “Keep, by the Holy Spirit which dwells in us, the good deposit entrusted”, 2 Tim.1:14. I wondered whether that would have a bearing on “his word”.
R.H.B. Yes, it implies that it is precious. “Whoever keeps his word”; there is a lot to draw us away. The Lord’s word to Philadelphia was to “hold fast what thou hast”, Rev.3:11. They had kept His word but they were to “hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. That is the challenge of the moment really, to keep what the Lord has given us, to value it. We are not asked, as the disciples were, to go out in pioneer work, but we are asked to maintain what the Lord has given distinctively, and I think the only way we can do that is through affection for Him.
A.M.B. It has been said that to abide in Him is to hold fast in communion and dependence, and is the result of that the bearing of fruit? We get that in John 15, and do you think that we could look upon the matter of walking as Jesus walked as being like bearing fruit to God, as we hold fast to the Lord Jesus in dependence and communion?
R.H.B. There could be no greater fruit under the eye of God than to see persons on the earth in days of public apostasy from the truth, walking as He walked. I sometimes wonder whether we have any impression of what the exquisite character of that means to the heart of God.
D.C.B. Would you say something about the help of the Spirit? His help must be proved if we are to answer to what we “ought” to do. We do not have the power.
R.H.B. No, but the question is whether we have the affection. We are not able for this in our own strength, but the apostle Paul could say, “the Lord stood with me, and gave me power”, 2 Tim.4:17. The Spirit is not mentioned here but His service underlies what we are saying, that the character of Christ should come out in expression publicly. I think the walk is not just as we walk among the brethren, it involves the public expression of the life of Jesus here against the background of what is in the world. It may be that that side of things has not had the importance with us that it should. But it is very much what God is seeking to maintain through the power of the Spirit – that there should be a public expression of the character and walk of that Man here on the earth.
G.A.B. In chapter 4 of the epistle, we have the word that “even as he is, we also are in this world” (v.17). Do you think that what we actually are will be manifested in the way we walk? Does “as he is” involve our occupation with Christ, a heavenly Man out of death? Occupation with Him would bring about formation and therefore the walk would correspond.
R.H.B. Yes, and what you say is very interesting because John speaks more than once in his epistle of Jesus as He is. You might have thought that it would be natural for John to share his reminiscences of Jesus as He was, because he was very intimate with Him on the earth, but you get it right through the epistle; “he is the propitiation for our sins”, and the passage you quote, and there are others where John writes of Jesus as He is. Morally there is no difference between what Jesus is and what He was. He is in a new condition, but I think it brings out that John was held in a present appreciation of Christ, not an historical one.
P.A.G. Is it significant that the One who is spoken of in 1 John 2 is “Jesus Christ the righteous” (v.1)? Then ”He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself also so to walk” (v.6). The character of the walk of the One who loved righteousness and hated lawlessness is to be seen in believers in this scene at the present time.
R.H.B. Yes. I wondered whether that matter of righteousness is seen in that reference to the love of God being perfected in believers. Everything in their lives is regulated by the revelation of God. So I love God, I love Christ and I love the family of God. I love my wife and I love my children. I am honest in my business affairs, not because I do not want to get into trouble but because that is Christ’s word and it is cherished. In the epistle to the Ephesians, you get exhortations to parents, children, husbands, wives, masters and bondmen, and it is all in the Lord. They were not to be men-pleasers but bondmen of Christ (Eph.6:6). I wondered if the love of God being perfected in a believer involves righteousness in the way that you are speaking of it, not only judicial righteousness, as in what is right and wrong, but everything in the believer’s life being pleasurable to God because it is regulated by the word of God. Is that right?
P.A.G. I think it is, because righteousness of God has been manifested in the glad tidings. Not the righteousness of God; that was known about by the godly Israelite. A new character of righteousness came in Christ that subsists; and when Christ comes in to set the world right it will be the Sun of righteousness who arises with healing in His wings (Mal.4:2). It is what the world does not have. It does not have righteousness; the standard of righteousness is corrupted. There is an incorruptible standard of righteousness and that is Christ, He is our righteousness.
R.H.B. That is excellent. Peter speaks of “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwells righteousness”, 2 Pet.3.13. There will be a new universe where that is the governing principle, and the result will be the greatest blessing for men; but, as you say, the world does not have it. So as you look around, you see marriage breakdown, breakdown of relationships of husband and wife, parents and children, business relationships, infidelity in relationships because regulation by the word of Christ is rejected. It is not the prevailing principle and therefore the result is misery.
N.C.McK. Where you started reading, it says, “we know that we know him … He that says, I know him”. The knowledge of God is a fundamental matter. John writes, for example, “the Son of God has been manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil”, 1 John 3:8. He brings the knowledge of God to persons, and that begins to change them. The epistle to the Romans shows how the knowledge of God is worked out in believers’ lives; it begins to alter their whole character.
R.H.B. And it has been brought to us in a Man. God has communicated what He is in His nature and in His attributes in a Man so that we can take it in. He had this on the earth in His Son, and it was of such exquisite pleasure to God that He is not going to have anything else.
G.B.G. John at the end of his epistle says, “we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true”, 1 John 5:20. Does that link with what you have been saying as to righteousness? God is true. Everything in His realm is in its right moral relationship, and it is very attractive that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we should know Him that is true.
R.H.B. What does that mean, the “understanding”? Is it faith, or is it more than that?
G.B.G. Do you think that in John’s gospel, the Lord gives us an understanding as to Him that is true, as He brings in the knowledge of God? When you understand a thing, I feel that it helps to regulate you; you understand the help that is available.
R.H.B. Yes, I think that is helpful, to understand “him that is true”. People speak about blind faith, but the blindness is in unbelief; “the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving”, 2 Cor.4:4. Persons who have faith see things that are real and true; they have been brought into the light of God; it is not imaginary or false. That light shows things as they are before God, and anything else is just the mirage or distraction with which the enemy turns away the hearts of men. It is a very blessed thing that we should know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true.
J.A.B. John says, in the verse you read in chapter 1, that “we have contemplated his glory”. The blessed Man in whom we see this perfectly has come near. Mr Darby’s note shows that the word “dwelt” literally means ‘tabernacled’, and the Lord Jesus is near to those who love Him and seek to be like Him. That nearness allows contemplation. Do you think that we need to contemplate Him in order to be in the good of what you are speaking about? It is not a glance.
R.H.B. No. That is a word for me; I feel that I need that word. It is contemplating His glory. You might say that outwardly, men did not see much in Jesus that was different from others. The prophet says, “He is despised and left alone of men … like one from whom men hide their faces”, Isa.53:3. People would have passed Him by without a second glance, but the apostle “contemplated his glory”, and you get the impression, What is John going to say about that? Is he going to speak about how He raised the dead? Is he going to speak about how He healed the leper, how He commanded the wind and the waves and they obeyed Him? What was John going to bring out to convey adequately the glory of the Son of God? What he draws attention to is the relationship, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”. Jesus manifested His glory in all those works of power, and His disciples believed on Him, but the overriding impression of that walk was that it was lived in the conscious joy of sonship.
N.J.H. Would contemplation bring the moral features of that revelation into our souls? I was thinking of Mary sitting at His feet. She was listening, and being changed as every word came out, as the mind of Christ was revealed to her. Taking time is one thing, but it is another thing to receive impressions of Him in your soul by the Spirit.
R.H.B. Yes, and that was typical of the disciples. In the Acts where they recognised them that they were companions of Christ, they were recognisable. Although men thought that they had seen the end of Christ personally, there were those here of whom it was said, “they recognised them that they were with Jesus”, Acts 4:13. That is practical. If I go to work or I go to school or to the shops, is there any testimony in my walk and ways and conduct that I belong to Him? This is that life in public expression.
D.A.B. It has often been said that “we have contemplated his glory” is John’s way of expressing the experience he had on the mount of transfiguration. I have been wondering if that experience which the disciples had on the mountain really governed their walk; it was a heavenly experience. The walk of Jesus had its origin in heaven and His object was always the Father in heaven. Is that something that we should learn through experience, that our walk is in the world but is to have a heavenly character as expressing Christ?
R.H.B. Yes, and would you allow also that what John wrote was the fruit of his experience in this chapter when he went and saw where Jesus abode. He tells us that one of the two was Andrew, and I think we can safely deduce that the other one was John himself. He heard John the baptist faithfully drawing attention to Christ, and it says that they followed Him. They were asked what they sought, and they wanted to know where He lived, what was the source and origin of that life, what was its impulse. The invitation that the Lord extends to them is open to us.
D.A.B. The question for me is whether I have the desire for this; “Come and see”. Have I a desire for the heavenly and spiritual things where Christ dwells, and is that going to affect my walk here? I am tested by what you say, that the expression of Christ is to be here practically in persons who are seeking to be faithful to Him.
R.H.B. Yes. Think of having time exclusively with the Lord. It says they “saw where he abode; and they abode with him that day”. What a day that must have been.
D.A.B. Do you think they were brought into the secret of Christ’s relation with His Father? A full outshining of divine purpose would come into their hearts which would govern them from then on, because this was at the beginning of their pathway.
R.H.B. It was, and John speaks earlier in the chapter of “the only-begotten Son” (v.18). What language this is. You may say that he was inspired by the Spirit to write it, which he was, but the Spirit was using what was in the apostle. It was not just that these wonderful words were put into his mind to write, but they had an answer in the apostle’s soul, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”. That was the impression that they must have gained as living with Him, that Jesus was in the Father’s bosom, and that was the secret of His walk through this world to the Father.
A.P.G. Does this matter of walk include companionship? Enoch walked with God. “Come and see” would be to go with Him.
R.H.B. Yes, and as Peter says, He has left us a model that we should follow in His steps (1 Pet.2:21). Are we committed to follow in the steps of Jesus? The Lord was not deterred from that. His pathway led Him into circumstances of great affection – it led Him to Bethany where He was loved, but it also led Him into adversity where He confronted outright opposition to God. He could say prophetically, “the reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me” (Ps.69:9), and “Reproach hath broken my heart”, Ps.69:20. There is an easier way to walk, but it is not in the steps that He has left us as a model.
J.T.B. Do the synoptic gospels give us that side? Jesus had “not where he may lay his head”, Matt.8.20. This gospel of John, which focuses so much on family relationships, introduces us, as a consequence of fidelity, into this elevated sphere.
R.H.B. Yes, and I like what our brother said as to companionship. Mr Darby’s hymn says;
‘He leaves us not alone to trace
Our path across the waste;’ (Hymn 244)
We are not left alone by God or by Christ, and as we take up that path, we find there are others in it too. I think what we are speaking about is the very essence of assembly testimony.
P.A.G. Does this involve the present enjoyment of victory? The Lord says in John 17 to the Father, “And now I come to thee. And these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in them. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world” (vv.13,14). In walking as He walked, there is a present victory to be had which glorifies God.
R.H.B. Yes, and John uses that word about getting the “victory” over the world (1 John 5:4). Christ’s victory is celebrated by us, not simply the showing forth of His death but the celebration of His triumph over it and what He has secured for God through it. But then John says, “Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (v.5). It is the light of that Man as the Head and Centre of another world in the soul that eclipses it. Is that right?
P.A.G. It is. While there is much that bears on our spirits, we need to be maintained in a sense that God has the victory. I know it is the victory over death, “thanks to God, who gives us the victory” ( 1 Cor.15:57), but there is victory over the world, there is triumph for God that can never be assailed, and our walk can be a demonstration of that. We can walk in superiority to the conditions in which we are, not that we feel superior, not that we act as superior, but we are above the world, we are not of it.
R.H.B. If we could imbibe that and its import, we would have imbibed a good deal.
Grangemouth
16 March 2019