DIVINE PURPOSE WORKED OUT IN LOVE
John 21:15 (to “than these”),16 (to “lovest thou me”),
17 (to “attached to me”); Hebrews 11:23;
These scriptures have been in one’s mind for a couple of weeks, but I have also been impressed lately as to the coming of the Lord Jesus, so I was thankful for the hymn (Hymn 131) which we have just sung. There will come days when, if her husband has gone off to work, our sister will be watching the door, and she will not exactly be waiting for an event, she will be waiting for him to come through the door. The return of our Lord is a matter that is so imminent in the day in which we live – the return of that Man to take up all those whom God “has purchased with the blood of his own”, Acts 20:28. The hymn speaks of our waiting and our watching, and the words also convey the spouse’s longing, our longing.
I have also been impressed recently with what Mr Darby said in a statement so simple and yet very profound: ‘Absolute consecration to Jesus is the strongest bond between human hearts4. I believe, beloved, that this underlies the importance of marriage “in the Lord”, 1 Cor.7:39. It is remarkable that divine love has been made known and been personified in a Man, the Lord Jesus. First of all, we could say that divine love is faithful, and I think that such faithful love demonstrated among other things the wisdom of God. Christ has “been made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption”, 1 Cor.1:30. The wisdom of God was fully personified in the Lord Jesus, and it is holy, it is untainted. These things are seen perfectly on the divine side, but God’s grace brings them before us as wonderful realities. And love is also sacrificial. I would desire to be affected in a deeper way by the sacrificial love seen in the Lord Jesus in the way that He went. That sacrificial love showed its greatness and its strength in that everything which might have impeded it was removed. The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world – that was sacrificial love. As we were reminded earlier as to 1 Corinthians 13, love among the saints expressed in mutual affection is the glue of unity. I think it would be right to express it in that way. It never fails; it believes all things, bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, so that the body of the saints is strengthened, strengthened in vigour and energy in serving God. How wonderful that is.
We get some impression of the foreknowledge of God, and also the desires of God in His being made known in Christ. In Christ, God came out fully, so that indeed the sin of the world has been taken away, making way for a new heavens and a new earth. We also get some impression that even in God’s foreknowledge, love lay behind it all. I read the repetition here in what the Lord said to Peter with the thought, in looking at our brother and sister, that love began, as it were, at the roots, in divine purpose. God’s foreknowledge goes back before the manifestation of what comes out publicly in persons; it goes back to His purpose. The Lord Jesus here reminds Simon Peter that the myriads of the beloved people of God, the lambs and the sheep who were His, meant everything to Him. Simon would be reminded that God had his eye on him from the very outset, regardless of his history, to use him to encourage and feed those attached to Christ.
The second scripture in Hebrews is a lovely scripture; it would remind us of Joseph and Mary in the way that they received light from God to protect the child Jesus. He was brought out of Egypt as the true Vine in the earth. It is well worth considering how everything that has come out in Christ, in that blessed One, is so delightful, perfect and precious to the heart of God. The verse has a descriptive character which comes out in the saints. I believe it is a picture, or a suggestion anyway, of a baptised household; not just a household, but a baptised household. The language is affecting; “they saw the child beautiful; and they did not fear the injunction of the king”. True fear of God comes into this, in that the child Moses was to be preserved for the Lord’s own use. It goes back to the roots of God’s intentions for His people Israel; Moses was to be preserved in view of leadership, in view of an example. The Lord could say “I have given you an example”, John 13:15. And so it is that, even in a meeting like this, we are quickened by the word of God, the Holy Scriptures and what they would say to us.
The next scripture is affecting but it is challenging. God knows the end from the beginning. The Lord Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, is the Leader and Completer of faith. What Paul had in mind was that the line of faith should continue in relation to those attached to Christ, continue in relation to God’s own thoughts, including the beginnings of things in a baptised household. Here the apostle Paul is writing to his child Timothy, and this is very much applicable practically to the current time we are in. It is needful that the desire of the saints is to continue on the line of faith. We have not seen Jesus yet, but we shall, and Paul’s great concern was that those who are left would not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of Paul His prisoner (v.8). The place which the Lord has in our hearts and lives is so vital at such a time. We are to hold to whole thoughts, what the assembly is to the heart of Christ, and here the line of faith is even identified in Timothy’s grandmother and his mother. We see and appreciate the line of faith continuing in our young brethren. What the Lord would put before them is that they now have their own portion in faith, as it were, as a household. They have already had that portion in the breaking of bread, for they have thrown in their lot with their brethren even in the place of reproach publicly, during the long time of rejection of the Lord Jesus whom they love.
And so in the second scripture in 2 Timothy, Paul refers to the Spirit. The Lord had said that it would be profitable for Him to go away, for if He did not go away the Spirit would not come to them (John 16:7), and that when He came, He would bring demonstration to the world, of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment because the world would not believe on Him. The Lord is still rejected, but He goes on to say, ”of righteousness, because I go away to my Father”. That is where righteousness is and that is where it is drawn from. The Lord Jesus is made unto us righteousness in that way. How wonderful that is, but we are to keep by the Holy Spirit the good deposit entrusted.
I would liken that to the whole body of “the faith once delivered to the saints”, Jude v.3. As in Jude’s time when apostasy was on every hand and the principles of apostasy were working in the profession, so it is today. But then it comes right down to each one of us – our young brother and sister, each one in the room – having that love of the truth because of the Person, the Lord Jesus, who set it all on and who is the truth objectively Himself, while the Spirit is the truth subjectively,5 quickening our affections toward Him. Paul says, “But thou, abide in those things which thou hast learned” – the “thou” is emphasised – “knowing of whom thou hast learned them”. The Lord has had His hand in things. He is the great Teacher, the great Model. Vessels may have been used, parents may have been used, for which we are thankful, but we have all to learn from Him.
All this is in Paul’s ministry. Marriage in the Lord is mentioned once in Paul’s epistles but involves the rights of the Lord over the believer, which is so essential. Every lover of Christ who is sealed with the Spirit is secure, and marriage in the Lord involves being united together in giving the Lord His rights in our lives and thinking. It goes back, I believe, to love being faithful, holy and sacrificial. It is evidence of the wisdom of God, of the righteousness and holiness and redemption which is available to us in Christ.
In the name of the Lord Jesus.
Doug Welch