CHRIST WHERE HE IS, OR, THE EFFECT OF PLACE
CHRIST WHERE HE IS, OR, THE EFFECT OF PLACE
The place I am in always demands of me to be according to it. If I do not like it, I may resist, because I feel the unspoken claim it has on me; so, when it is pleasing to me, I am promoted by it in my own tastes. To a christian Christ’s present place is of the greatest importance; because if my union with Christ be on earth, where I am myself, then the earth claims me, and I am required to be according to it. But if my union with Christ be outside and above the earth, even in heaven, then that place [p. 109] claims me, and as I am true to my calling, I must be according to it. The great and peculiar privilege of the saint now is, that he is united to Christ, and therefore where He is determines everything. The old association was not to be resumed, as He said to Mary Magdalene, “Touch me not... but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”, John 20: 17.
Many who see clearly that we are now united to Christ by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven are not awake to the immense consequence which must ensue from being united to Him where He is. If I am united to Him where He is, then I am not in the enjoyment of my union with Him, but as I am in association with Him where He is. I am sent to act for Him where He is not, but I am in spirit where He is, because united to Him in heaven; and that place necessarily is the place of my heart, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The bare fact of being united to Christ has been received without taking into account the place where He is to whom we are united. As naturally all my associations and connections are with earth - this scene - it is essential to determine whether in any way we could be united to Christ here, and therefore whether much of the well-intentioned and devout expression of ‘cleaving to Christ only’ truly designates the depth and meaning of union with Him.
Let us first see that it is impossible to be united to Christ on earth, and then it will be easy to see where the lack is in those who piously assume to be united to Him but yet do not apprehend what union with Him really entails. There cannot be union with Christ but in ascension; we could not be united to Him in the flesh, because as a Man He was the Holy One of God, and entirely alone, and without a second. He was the Corn of wheat that would have continued alone had He not died. It is of all importance to be clear on this point; otherwise we assume to be united where we are not, and [p. 110] thus lose the great and untold blessings of union. There could be no union with Christ until He by His death had removed everything out of the way which would have barred union with Him. Union must be on common ground. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one”.
The Holy Spirit is the bond of union, and He did not come down until Christ was at the right hand of God. “Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear”, Acts 2: 33. The Holy Spirit came down only consequent on the exaltation of Jesus. “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you”. If the Holy Spirit is dwelling in me, He comforts me in the absence of Christ; but to do so, He unites me to Christ where He is, because Christ must be in heaven if the Holy Spirit be in me. When Christ comes, we shall be caught up to meet Him in the air. But the fact of the Holy Spirit being in me now indicates the presence of Christ at the right hand of God; and my union with Him, to be enjoyed, must be in association with Him where He is; hence He said to Mary Magdalene, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God”. The Holy Spirit in me always, as is shown in the case of Stephen, leads me to heaven. “Being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus”.
Because Christ is in heaven, this necessarily must be the case. All true enjoyment of my union with Christ must connect me with Him where He is: hence it is said, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”. Heaven as His place, and where everything suits Him, necessarily has a most marked effect on me. I am not only united to Him by the Spirit sent down from [p. 111] heaven, but I, because of my union with Him, taste of scenes that are pure and eternal where God is. Can any one contemplate for a moment the greatness of the effect on the heart, of the simple fact of having even a fleeting association with Him in those regions of holiness and light? How entirely they must reduce everything here, even the best, to insignificance! Thus the effect of Christ’s place is immense; and hence, when any one speaks of enjoying Christ, he must either find association with Him where He is, the Spirit taking of Mine, and showing it unto you, or he must give his enjoyment a higher name than it deserves.
There is a great deal of enjoyment of Christ which does not spring from association with Him. There is a sense of perfect remission of sins; there is the heart burning because of the opening of the Scriptures; and there is the action of the light, the sense that I belong to it, and am really of a divine origin; there is the knowledge of His favour in service and circumstances, yielding a very distinct joy; and yet none of these rises to the height of association with Himself; all these, however great, could be enjoyed on earth. Nothing can divert from earth but another place, and a greater, and this is one of the greatest effects arising from association with Him in heaven. Then I know my citizenship is there; I become loose to earth, because I am conscious of having real enjoyment of heart with Him in heaven where He is. If I only get heaven when I die, I retain earth till that event takes place; but if I am united to Christ there now, I taste, through the Spirit, the perfection of that place; and this diverts me from this place, which is so entirely, in the best circumstances, inferior to it. It is my union with Christ in heaven which requires of me, and enables me, to be a heavenly man on earth. If it were not so, there might be the effort, as there is sincerely in many, without the sense of being heavenly; but when I enjoy union with Him where He is, I get the sense of what it is to be heavenly; and instead of a mere effort to be heavenly,
[p. 112] my delight is to be according to the exaltation and height which I have tasted of in spirit.
All through Scripture we find how much is attached to the place which the Lord shall choose to place His name there. How much more must heaven be, the dwelling-place of God! No one for a moment would make light of so great a favour as the fact of one being united to Christ in heaven, if he were to comprehend in any measure the magnitude of it. The greatest damage has arisen to souls from appropriating language which expresses a higher experience than one knows. Hence, in the present day many speak of enjoying Christ, of having communion, of making Christ everything; very interesting statements in themselves, but the practical effect of such very high experiences is wanting. I have shown that if I were associated with Christ where He is, the effect on me would be to set me here growing daily more indifferent to the brightest thing on earth; because I knew what it was to enjoy the brightness of the eternal scenes of light. This, I repeat, would be the great and distinct effect of enjoying Christ where He is, which would show itself in ten thousand ways.
But beside this, there are other very great and deep experiences which cannot be known unless the soul has been led by the Spirit to Christ in heaven.
First, there is no true and clear sense of the priesthood of Christ, unless I know Him now appearing in the presence of God for me. How could I know this perfect presentation, were I not now united to Him where He is? True, there is nothing said of union with Christ in the Hebrews; but the fact is stated, that He has entered heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. How could I enjoy the effect of this, if I were not in spirit associated with Him?
How could I know what it is to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way, which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say His flesh, unless I were associated with Christ by [p. 113] the Spirit? So that, if I am not with Christ where He is, I have neither a clear, well-assured sense of how He maintains me in the presence of God, nor have I, however great my intelligence of doctrines and truth generally, ever really tasted yet of the true place of a worshipper in the holiest of all. And this accounts for the constant reference in hymns and otherwise, by many apparently advanced saints, to the work of Christ and their need of the atonement. I believe that every one in the holiest deepens in his appreciation of the wondrous work which has procured entrance for him into that perfect scene; but I say that one there, is not seeking or reverting to the way to get in, because he is in, and he is praising and blessing because he is there.
It appears to me that any one who has not tasted of association with Christ where He is, must, however pious and devoted, be ignorant of the sense of entire separation from sin in the holiest of all; and he is rather seeking to reach this than enjoying it; like a mariner, after a long and dangerous voyage, seeing land, but not on it yet.
Next, there are many who enjoy the riches of His grace, redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who do not enter into the glory of His grace. You cannot know the glory of His grace, but as you know you are accepted in the Beloved; and you cannot know this but as you are associated with Christ where He is in the presence of the Father. A man, according to the types in the Old Testament, might know the sin-offering, but the ram of burnt-offering is quite another thing; and, as in the offering for consecration, it was offered up whole. Christ is in the presence of God, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and this is the nature and measure of an acceptance, of which we cannot know, unless we know Christ where He is; and if we do not know this acceptance, how can we walk acceptably here? Moses cannot set up the tabernacle until he has seen it in perfection. A gardener cannot grow an exotic, in any [p. 114] way in keeping with its beauty, unless he has seen it growing in its natural climate; and thus I account for the small and meagre representation of Christ on earth; because many of the most pious, and devoted, and intelligent are not acquainted with Him where He is, and have not tasted of their acceptance there.
In fine, a saint might have the faith of an Abraham, and not enjoy association with Christ in heaven. He might have the courage of a Daniel, and not know union with Christ in heaven. He might be assured of the forgiveness of his sins, like the woman in Luke 7, and not know that he was united to Christ in heaven. He might have the devotedness of a Mary of Bethany, and the affection of a Mary Magdalene, and be as sure of heaven as a Simeon or the thief on the cross, and yet not know the deep, wondrous effect of being united to Christ in heaven.
The Lord teach us to see that, as our standing is immensely higher than any of the saints who have preceded us, we are called to surpass them in a heavenly walk here on the earth, for His name’s sake.