THE PRESENT PORTION OF THE BELIEVER
THE PRESENT PORTION OF THE BELIEVER
“A gift is as a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it: whithersoever it turneth, it prospereth”, Proverbs 17: 8. The possession of any good thing imparts a sense which far greater things in the most assured expectancy can never do. Hence the importance of ascertaining what is the present portion of the believer. Every believer, from Abel down, has had something specially bestowed on him through grace, which was his “precious stone”, and whithersoever it turned it prospered.
Abel’s was that his offering was accepted of God: this was palpably and convincingly assured to him. Let him die, this prospered; and the present was not only perfected in the future, but he had a present thing, so that he was in quite a new state to what he was before he received it.
Enoch walked with God; that was his present portion and gift, and whithersoever it turned it prospered.
Noah was saved through the ark, and blessed on the earth; that was his present portion, and he knew the good of it.
Abraham was the friend of God, with a favour so great that whithersoever it turned it prospered.
Moses, Samuel, David, and the prophets, each had special favours, like precious stones; indeed, whithersoever they turned they prospered.
Now when the Son comes and takes upon Himself the form of a servant, and is made in the likeness of men, He also receives a gift. The Holy Spirit descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased”, Luke 3: 22. The greatest gift was given to the Son on earth, and in the weakness of [p. 260] manhood down here; and whithersoever it turned this great gift prospered.
But when the Lord ascended, He received the promise of His Father, the Holy Spirit, which He has sent down to us. He bore down here the judgment which lay upon us, and having glorified God when under it, in the lowest place, washing away our sins in His own blood, He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father; and now from the greatest height He sends down the same Spirit that He was anointed with down here, as His gift to us, to be enjoyed even now while we walk on the earth, until He comes, and we enter fully into the purpose of God. Until Christ comes and receives us unto Himself, there is no full possession of anything, though by the Spirit dwelling in us there is a sense and an enjoyment of all. Thus there are two things to be known immediately by the believer. First, the remission of sins, so that death, the wages of sin, is annulled, and eternal life is given to him. Secondly, he is sealed by the Holy Spirit come down from heaven. So that the ascension of the Saviour into glory is the assurance of the one; and the presence of the Holy Spirit unites me to Him, and elevates me to His walk, with His mind as to the present and future, in the very place where nothing could have saved me but His death. Thus the gift of the Holy Spirit is at once the seal, the bond between Christ and the church, and the revealer of the deep things of God - a gift indeed like a precious stone in the eyes of him that hath it, and it prospereth whithersoever it turneth.
The Holy Spirit, then, this new and great gift, is a portion quite beyond any ever known to any believer before. “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life”, John 4: 14. The first great sense that marks my present portion is that I have a power in me springing up into everlasting life. I enjoy eternal life where death reigned, and where I was under the fear of [p. 261] it. Can anything be more glorious and blessed than the simple fact that I am now not merely immortal, but I have a life imparting to me a capacity to enjoy God, ever fresh and ever vigorous? “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ”, John 17: 3. “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life”, 1 John 5: 20. Thus the Spirit of God in me, like a fountain, keeps me in fresh continual enjoyment of eternal life, and this so satisfies my heart that I never thirst. My present portion is entirely dependent on the Spirit of God and His action and energy. The things that are freely given us of God are made known to us by the Spirit of God. Hence as the Spirit is active, we are consciously enjoying by foretaste the varied and immeasurable blessings which are ours in Christ. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”.
The first gift of Christ consequent on His resurrection, after announcing peace as an accomplished fact, was to breathe on His disciples, and say, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, John 20: 22. The first great joy, then, made known to my soul by the presence of the Holy Spirit, is that I am free of the law of sin and death, sensibly assuring my soul of life in Christ.
I breathe a perfect life, in an entirely new atmosphere, by a power entirely independent of myself. I am sensibly free of the load and pressure that lay on me as a child of Adam, and I have life in Him who is the only begotten Son of God. I am to live Him down here. I am to be the reproduction of Himself, the expression of His life. He is my daily bread for earth, the manna, and as I feed on Him, my tie and attachment to Him is ever deepening.
If my present portion were to end here, it would be a very great one indeed, even that I am entirely and sensibly clear of the state of ruin and misery in which I once lay,
[p. 262] and that I am now enjoying a perfect life here on the earth, assured that when my course here ends I shall be in the undisturbed enjoyment of it for ever. Many, it is true, do not enjoy more, or even as much as this in the journey down here, and yet there is much more. If the present portion were only the enjoyment of life in Christ, in perfect freedom from the law of sin and death great and blessed as it is, where would be the sense and confidence of present favour because of my relationship? Hence it is, “Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, Galatians 4: 6. Now, in addition, I know I am a child of God. I have some of the intelligence in my heart of the blessed Son. In what a sense of favour and dignity must I walk through this earth as I know this is my present portion! Hence it is said, “If any man love the world”, - the visible thing - “the love of the Father” - the distinct enjoyment of relationship - “is not in him”, 1 John 2: 15. I learn too by the Spirit of God that I am accepted in the Beloved. What a disclosure and range of incommunicable delight does it afford me to have a sense of this as my present portion! It is indeed the great supper, the glorious provision that divine wisdom alone could form and furnish, where we have begun to be merry, where there is not only the assured right to enter the holiest, and be as a fellow of Christ there, but to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, in all consciousness of our nearness and relationship; the Spirit revealing to our hearts, with a continual increase and fulness, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, so that with God one can say, I am beside myself; “He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you”, John 16: 15. So that as to my present portion, “my cup runneth over”.
There is still something more, so great and individual, which, though little known, we must not omit.
There are varieties in the class, but they are united. “At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and [p. 263] ye in me, and I in you”, John 14: 20. Again, “We will come unto him, and make our abode with him”, John 14: 23; and lastly, “God dwelleth in him, and he in God”, 1 John 4: 15. No one can contemplate the possibility of enjoying any of these most blessed and wondrous elevations, without being impressed with the magnitude and dignity of the present portion of a believer. The Spirit in me is also the earnest of the inheritance. I may have no property on the earth, as man has at present, and yet I have in me the direct consciousness of title to the earth in company and heirship with my Lord and Saviour. I do not go about the world as one deprived of the earth, but as one waiting for my time and turn to have and enjoy it. I am more than an heir-apparent, because I have the earnest, and therefore a sensible participation of the property I shall enter on by and by. My position is more that of a king unknown to others than an exiled one, for I am perfectly sure and happy in my right of possession, and I have no regrets, nor am I affected by any slights, as if I were an exiled one. I could not be known, and I seek not to be known, until He comes whose right it is.
Again, I know by the Spirit that I am united to Christ in heaven, the Head of the body, the church; and by the Spirit also I am united to each one of His members down here. In every action and energy of the Spirit there is a sensible and notable addition to my present portion. Where two or three are gathered to His name, He is in our midst, for comfort, counsel, or help of any kind.
We are learning to “comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of all His counsel, “and to know the love of Christ... that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God”, Ephesians 3: 18,19. And to this must be added that we receive gifts from our ascended Lord “for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the [p. 264] faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”, Ephesians 4: 12,13.
In this world, where man is a weak creature, we are called to “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (Ephesians 6: 10), to resist all the wiles of the devil. I am to know assuredly that I can do all things through Him who gives me power; that is, that there is power from Him for me to do anything, so that in any or in every case I should be superior to the adverse power here; all contingent on our simple dependence. “If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it”, John 14: 14. Hence prayers and supplications become us, as dependent ones, but they only indicate where our resources are, so that not only for ourselves or our own individual need do we pray, but “for all saints”. Still more, supplications, prayers, intercessions, are made for all men.
Whether then in the light and glory of His presence, or in the obstructions and weakness of our present creaturehood, we have a present portion incomprehensible in magnitude as well as of unutterable blessedness. “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage”, Psalm 16: 6.