JESUS GLORIFIED AND THE SPIRIT GIVEN
JESUS GLORIFIED AND THE SPIRIT GIVEN
It is unquestionable that we have different lines of teaching presented to us in the New Testament, in the scriptures which bear more directly on Christians. While every scripture is given by inspiration of God, there are certain scriptures which relate in almost an exclusive way to Christians. And I see increasingly, that the spirit and principle which pervades all such writings is unity; that is, all the teaching tends in that direction. It is a point that it is not at all difficult to demonstrate. Expressions which are common with us out of the writings of Paul sufficiently prove it. The end of Paul’s teaching is “one body”. I have been struck with this in the Epistle to the Romans. In the first eight chapters of that epistle, though the body is not named, the apostle gives you a sufficient doctrinal basis for the one body, so that in chapter 12 we find the statement, “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and members one of another”. If you do not understand the truth of the one body, you are not intelligently in the will of God here. I might make other quotations from Paul; but everybody knows that the fact of the one body is almost the heart of the apostle’s teaching, a body composed of Jew and Gentile, formed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, of which Christ is set in the place of Head. God gave Him “head over all things” as head to the church, “which is his body, the fulness [or completeness] of him that fills all in all”.
[p. 2] Now I find the same principle pervading the writings of John, namely, that what we are being led on to is the thought of unity. No one can read John 10 without seeing that the end to which the Lord was leading is expressed in this “And other sheep I have” — speaking of the Gentiles — “which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd”. I can understand someone saying, But you are confounding the flock with the one body. I reply, No, they are parallel truths; it is a different idea, but there is no difference substantially between the one body and the one flock. There is another point connected with it, namely, that it is impossible for any one of us to enter intelligently into the idea of unity according to the mind of God if we have not first learnt what is true of us individually. That is as certain as anything can be.
Unity is a very important point; but I am not speaking about outward ecclesiastical unity. By unity I mean the unity as of one body, and the one body is the body of Christ. We learn that there is one body; and it is the knowledge of that which separates Christians from all the great religious bodies about us. It is not difficult to show to those who are really Christians the inconsistency of the great sects and systems with the truth of scripture, because it is so manifest. There is one body existing here upon earth; but when that is seen there is another truth to be learnt, which is almost a more important one, that that body is Christ’s body. It is the vessel in which Christ is displayed.
It may be as well to stop for a moment to prove this, for I do not care to put out anything which cannot be substantiated from scripture. It is evident that the body is for the display of Christ, for scripture says: “The church, which is his [p. 3] body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” — fulness is that which is adequate for the complete display. As we see in Romans 13, “Love is the fulness of the law”. The text reads, “Love is the fulfilling of the law”, but the real meaning is “the fulness of the law”; that is, love is that which is alone needful for the complete display of the law. When Paul was going to Damascus on the errand of persecution, there appeared to him a light above the brightness of the sun, and he heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” He was persecuting Christ in His body; it was Himself, that in which He was displayed. I only refer to that in connection with the thought of unity.
Now I will, by way of preface, just briefly go over the main points of John’s gospel. Down to the end of chapter 6 we get what is individual, namely, the great truth of life brought out in its principles and characteristics, and with it the deliverance of the soul from what is contrary to God. Then chapter 7 introduces a new thought: the change of dispensation, the time of the Spirit; and in connection with this we have the new company, the one flock. That, and the various glories of Christ, is the great subject of the section from chapter 7 to chapter 12, which is one continuous section. Then, from chapter 13 to chapter 17 you get the disciples viewed as the vessel which was to be here in witness for Christ, and the features and character of the vessel. By the vessel I mean the company which was to be here for Christ, and which was to be expanded into one flock, of which Christ was the Shepherd. It was to be here for Him, not for itself, just as the body is for the display of the Head. That is what comes out from chapter 13 to chapter 17. I am dividing the gospel in a human way; but I think if you bear in mind the division, you may be helped in the understanding of what I [p. 4] want to bring before you. My object is to bring out the character of the new dispensation. I do not go further in this lecture, than to touch on what comes out in chapter 7, at the close of which the new dispensation is introduced. The main feature of it is that the Spirit is here. The Lord refers to it, and John adds: “[p. 8] This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”. Jesus had previously said that He was going away; but now we see that His going away would lead to another thing, that He would be glorified and the time of the Holy Ghost would be down here. There would be a new order of things marked by the presence of the Spirit here, and, for want of a better term, I venture to call it the dispensation of light. In the succeeding chapters man is viewed as completely tested by the light of Christ’s word and work, both of which he rejects and is thus found wanting; and, consequent upon that, an entirely new and heavenly company is formed, composed of Jew and Gentile, “one flock”, of which Christ is the Shepherd. So that you have a new dispensation which is marked by the presence of the Spirit here, and a new company, of which Christ is the Shepherd. And then the section closes up, in chapters 11 and 12, with witness to the varied glories of Christ, as Son of God, Son of David, and Son of man; and He, having been lifted up from the earth, is the point to which all are drawn.
Now, I have called this new dispensation the dispensation of light, and I touch on it for a moment, because of the importance of the thought that light tests. Light in divine things is positive, for light is the revelation of God, and the revelation of God necessarily tests everything. Thus it is the word of Christ which tests the Jew in chapter 8, and His work which tests him in chapter 9, and the Jew [p. 5] rejects both. At the close of chapter 8 they took up stones to stone Jesus, and in chapter 9 they excommunicated the subject of His work; they will neither have the word of God nor the work of God. But then, consequent upon that, the Lord reveals that He is leading His sheep out of the fold; and in bringing in the Gentile there is the formation of one flock, and there is one Shepherd. But that could not be until the Jew had been completely tested by the presentation to him of the light. Then the Lord brings out His sheep; there is one flock, but not to take the place of Israel. When I go into that, we shall see that the characteristic of the flock now is this, “I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I also know the Father”.
Now, as I remarked, it is before the mind of the Lord in chapter 7 that He is about to go away. There are four utterances of the Lord in the chapter, but I only touch on the last of them. “Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come” (verse 33, 34); that is, the Lord reveals the truth that He was on the point of going away. Then (verse 37 - 39), “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”. The time of the Holy Ghost could not be until He could bring down the report into this world of the glory of Christ. He has come down as Witness that God has accomplished for Himself all the counsel of His will in a man, and that that man [p. 6] is at the right hand of God, and everything is delivered into His hand, He is glorified. Reconciliation has been accomplished for God, and everything is headed up now in Christ, all things are put under His feet, He is in glory: and the Holy Ghost has come down to bring the report of it. It is that which characterises the present moment. You may be sure that people are all tending in the direction of one man or of another; in the direction of Christ or of Antichrist. The world in the present day is tending in the direction of Antichrist, for the tendency is to give up Christ. Nobody is stationary, and if you are not going Christ-ward you are tending in the direction of man. I see this coming out in the Epistle to the Hebrews — the tendency of the Hebrews was to turn back, and if they did not go forward to God, they went back to man.
I must refer for a moment to the occasion on which this truth in John 7 comes out, namely, the feast of tabernacles; for you cannot well understand it apart from seeing the occasion. You will see that the chapter begins a fresh subject. “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither did his brethren believe in him”. You must take account of the fact that the brethren of the Lord, the Jews, were lost in unbelief. No doubt the passage refers to His natural kindred; but I think it has a wider significance, and refers to the Jew after the flesh. What we find is, that the Lord [p. 7] will not publicly identify Himself with the feast of tabernacles; but He goes up secretly to teach in the temple, He takes every occasion to carry on the service of His testimony here, though He cannot identify Himself in any public way with the Jewish feast. “My time is not yet come”, He says; that is, His time was not yet come to bring in the feast of tabernacles in its true power. Then at the close of the chapter you come to what is remarkable: the Lord, having met all the different thoughts of the Jews in the early part of the chapter, at the close propounds something on the great day of the feast, which, I take it, means the eighth day, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. This leads me to refer for a moment to the feast of tabernacles. We read in Leviticus 23 that it took place on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. As far as I can understand the teaching of the feasts, everything for Israel was to begin afresh in connection with the seventh month. The previous principal feasts were the feast of unleavened bread and the feast of weeks; and on the first day of the seventh month everything began afresh. On the first day is the blowing of trumpets, on the tenth is the day of atonement, and on the fifteenth day is the feast of tabernacles. The teaching of it is, I suppose, that in connection with the seventh month, the history of Israel is taken up afresh.
In John the Lord ignores everything connected with Israel and the feast of tabernacles, and nothing comes out of His mouth about it till the great day of the feast. Then He stands and cries, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink”; and we have the interpretation of the Spirit of God,
“This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified”. The first seven days of the feast indicate the completeness of earthly blessing and joy in Israel; but the eighth day brings in eternal things, that which is in resurrection, in conjunction with the earthly things; it is in that sense the communion of the heavenly and the earthly. Now you can understand how it is that the Lord begins to speak here about the heavenly things, because the feast of tabernacles was not for the time to have place, and what was to come in were the eternal and heavenly things in connection with Jesus being glorified and the Holy Ghost given. To me it simplifies the matter very greatly when we see what was the significance of the great day of the feast.
I will now say a word or two about Jesus glorified and the Holy Ghost given, because the presence of the Holy Ghost was to introduce another day. You can see the great contrast between Jesus being in humiliation here, and His being glorified. It is evident that the glory of Jesus must introduce the light of another day. It is a wonderful truth that Jesus is glorified; He is not yet displayed in glory, but everything is placed under His feet, He has “ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things”; and the church is His body, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”; He is above all things, and the Holy Ghost is come down here to report His glory. It is a great thing to be in the light of it — I do not know anything much more blessed. You know that all things are put under Him, and you do not look to man for anything, you look to God for all; and God, at any moment that He sees fit, can change the whole aspect and character of things down here. As the apostle says in Hebrews 2, “We see not yet all things put [p. 9] under him, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”. A little period is left to men during which they can carry on their actings down here, but faith knows that God has put all things under the feet of Christ; the word to Him is, “Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool”. He is saluted there as high priest, He is the minister of the holy places, and the Holy Ghost has come down as witness of His glory; it is the time of the Holy Ghost, and He could not be here until Jesus was glorified.
I am loath to leave the point because I think the light of the glory of Christ is the light in which our souls should be. I do not judge that anybody can enter into the great thought of unity until he is in the light of the glory of Christ. I believe it is that which delivers the soul from the influence and power of the world to a very large extent. You see the antagonism to it on the part of the god of this world, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not” — what against? “lest the light of the glad tidings of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”. The great point in Jesus glorified is that everything that was lost in man has been recovered for God, that all things are put under Christ; they only await the moment of His display, and we shall see all things put under Him. It is not simply that He is exalted to be Judge, but He “has ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things” according to God. That is His place, that is true of Him, and the Church is His body, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”.
It is the time of the Holy Ghost now; and perhaps the greatest mercy which God has shown to us in these last days is in giving us the recognition of the presence of the Holy Ghost here. I remember [p. 10] thirty or forty years ago, we were accustomed to look for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost; Christendom, even Protestantism, had lost all sense of the true character of the dispensation, the abiding presence of the Holy Ghost here. The very point of the moment is that the Spirit is here as witness of the glory of the Bridegroom. The position of the virgins is that they are waiting for the Bridegroom; properly, they know His glory by the report of the Spirit, and they are waiting to go in with Him to the marriage. The idea of the Bridegroom to my mind is that He is One who has rights; and the virgins are waiting, in the faith of His coming, but as knowing His glory. He sits now at the right hand of God, to the infinite satisfaction of God — it is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. As has often been said, God is satisfied, and God is glorified, and Jesus is glorified. Everything there is to the perfect satisfaction of God. Stephen looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus in glory, and said, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God”. Stephen was, by the Holy Ghost, under the blessed influence of the glory of Christ. You could not have a more perfect expression of it, for he was full of the Holy Ghost, and what the Holy Ghost made him conscious of was Jesus glorified; it was the fulfilment to his soul of what the Lord looked forward to here, the time when He would be glorified and the Holy Ghost given.
The Lord says, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said” — it was to be a fulfilment of scripture, and I think you might find the scripture if you search for it — “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. I want by the Lord’s help to give you an idea of what that means; and for that purpose I must refer to the previous chapters,
[p. 11] because I do not think that you can talk about rivers of living water flowing out of the belly of the believer if you do not see first how the believer is set in life. In the three previous chapters the question of life is solved. In chapter 4 the great subject matter is the communication by Christ to the believer of the Spirit as “a well of water springing up unto eternal life”. The Lord says, “he that drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but 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 unto eternal life”. We have not come yet to eternal life, but we have that which springs up unto it. I do not mean that you have to wait till heaven to reach eternal life; but you reach it here in the power of the Spirit, that is, the Spirit in the believer will spring up to eternal life.
In chapter 5 you get the wonderful truth of a man raised up by Christ’s word from the bed of legality. It is the revelation of God active in grace which delivers a soul from legality, for one learns that so far from our having to work, God has been working for our blessing; “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”. When once a person learns that his blessing depends — not upon his working, but the Father’s pleasure, then he is delivered from legality. That is what comes out in chapter 5, where the Lord raises up the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had lain on the bed of his weakness for thirty-eight years. God delights to be known as Father in the activities of His love. You were drawn to Christ by the Father; you may say that you were drawn to Him by preaching, but the real truth is that the Father drew you to Christ. And you were drawn to Christ that He might bring you to the Father; that is the way in which grace works. “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work”.
[p. 12] No one can come to Christ except the Father draw him; the Father works in drawing to Christ, and then Christ reveals the Father to those that are drawn to Him by the Father. The love of Christ to saints is explained by this, they are individually dear to Christ because they are the Father’s gift to Him, and He makes known to them .the Father’s name.
In chapter 6 another point comes out, that the believer is completely independent of the world because he has living bread for the food of his soul. The Lord Jesus says, “As the living Father hath sent me, and I live because of the Father”. I understand by it that the Lord Jesus down here was in no way dependent upon man or the world, that He lived here completely independent of all that was here, because He lived by the Father. Then it goes on to say, “so he that eateth me” — that is, that to the one who appropriates Christ (and the affection of the believer is entitled to appropriate Christ in the very fullest way), all that He is, is yours; you cannot make too great demands upon Christ; you are entitled to appropriate Him in that which He is as Man — “he that eateth me, even he shall live because of me”. When I appropriate Christ, He is living bread to my soul; I am independent of all that is here; I do not live because of the world, but I live because of Christ. Therefore I am in communion with His death, I eat His flesh, and drink His blood. Can you conceive anything more wonderful? You have the Holy Ghost in chapter 4, the Father in chapter 5, and Christ in chapter 6: the well of water springing up to eternal life in chapter 4, the Father revealed to you in chapter 5, and Christ as the living bread in chapter 6; and I say that is the portion of the believer’s soul. Eternal life is this, “that they might know thee”, the Father, “the only true God, and Jesus Christ thy sent One” — you have got to life. It is like a bird that has found its wings. Here am I still in this world, but no more dependent on the world; I use my wings; I am unfettered now. I no longer look to the world for promotion or advantages, for the satisfaction of my soul; but I live because of Christ, as He lived because of the Father. Eternal life in the very nature of it must, at the present time, be completely independent of and apart from all that is here, because “the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal”; and therefore eternal life must be in unseen things.
But you have not got all quite complete yet; you have everything complete as to you, but now there is what comes out in chapter 7 — you are to be in the light of Christ’s glory. I do not think that a believer would be content even in the enjoyment of the portion which I have spoken of if he were not in the light of the glory of Christ; for what he sees is this, if Christ is all this to me, if I have such a portion, then in the very necessity of things Christ must fill all things, everything must be put under Him, He must be glorified, He must be the Head of everything. The believer feels that he could not realize what is spoken of in the previous chapter without his soul — if I may so say — demanding this, he must have the light of the glory of Christ. The Holy Ghost has come down to introduce another day, and to place the soul of the believer in the light of the glory of Christ; and the effect of it is that out of the belly of the believer flow rivers of living water. By that I do not understand preaching or public testimony; but I think it means that the believer has got more than he can contain, and therefore rivers of living water flow out of his belly. And if we were instructed in the blessed truth of the preceding chapters, that is if we really understood how we are [p. 14] set in life according to the grace of God, and were led by the Spirit of God into the light of the glory of Christ, I believe it would be true of every one of us that we should have more than we could contain, and therefore in that sense, “out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”. The soul is brought into the presence of things that are eternal, where God has His supreme and perfect satisfaction in Christ, and everything is according to God’s blessed mind, and Christ fills all things.
You may depend upon it that our lot is cast in a terribly evil day; and I am more and more convinced of the truth of what I said, that in the present day no one can be stationary, everybody gravitates in one direction or another; either you go man-ward or you go God-ward. If you go God-ward, you enter more and more, by the power of the Spirit of God, into the counsel and thought of God. And you can do this by the grace of God; for in principle God has accomplished all His counsel in Christ who is “crowned with glory and honour”, everything put under His feet. Do you think anything can touch Christ, or hinder the exercise of His power? I believe the power of Christ is sufficient for everything now — that there is nothing that can stand before that power here in the world. One single person converted is the proof of it. Christ is invested with all authority in heaven and upon earth, and the Holy Ghost is come down here to report His glory, and to inaugurate a new day, a dispensation of light. It is a time when God is completely revealed according to His nature, and in the blessed counsels of His grace. He has made known all that He purposes to accomplish, and in principle we see everything accomplished in the Person of Christ; He reconciles all things to Himself, and in a sense all is reconciled in Christ. We do not see it all displayed, but in principle all is [p. 15] effectuated for God in Christ glorified; and the Holy Ghost has come down to report His glory.
I do not intend to go further as to it tonight. The next point which will occupy us is the way in which man has been tested by the light, and the necessary consequences of his not answering to the test. But I think you must first understand the new dispensation which has been introduced by the fact of Jesus being glorified and the Holy Ghost being given. I think you must see how entirely it is in contrast with all that went before, with Jesus in humiliation down here. In the end of the chapter, we see the patient grace in which the Lord met all the contrariety of the Jews, and every question which they could raise. What a contrast to this is Jesus glorified and the Holy Ghost given! That is the day in which we are placed.