THE LORD THE GATHERING POINT FOR ALL
[p. 46] THE LORD THE GATHERING POINT FOR ALL
I suppose one might say that the utterance of the Lord at the close of this chapter is one of the most solemn that we have recorded. It is evident that the character of it is pretty much that of a last word in the world. What the Lord sets forth is that He had come a light into the world, and that the light was just on the point of departing, so that the world would be left in darkness; it was, as it were, the sun setting, so far as the world was concerned, and night and darkness coming on. The same apostle, John, takes up the thought in his first epistle, and says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world ... For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”. The passage is in that way of very great importance, as marking the gravity of the moment. All was on the ground that the world was about to be involved in gross darkness because the light of the world was departing from it.
I make that remark by way of preface. I read chapter 12, but I want to show you in a concise way the character of chapters 11 and 12, for they complete what has been before us on previous occasions, in unfolding to us the glory of Christ. The section of the gospel from the seventh to the twelfth chapter gives us what I may call a complete course of instruction, leading us up to that great point of the glory of Christ. It has often been noticed that John in his teaching very generally and naturally takes the opposite order to Paul. I think it arises from the peculiar nature of the apostleship of each.
[p. 47] For instance, we find Paul speaking of the Lord, and then of the Head. In these chapters in John I think you get what is analogous to that, but in opposite order. In chapter 10 it is the Shepherd, and in chapters 11 and 12 it is the Lord; Jesus was about to be glorified, and the two chapters bring before us in a very remarkable way the various elements of the glory of the Lord. Then for the moment the “corn of wheat” has to “fall into the ground and die”; everything is closed up in death, only to be taken up again in resurrection; and Christ, on the ground of having died, becomes the gathering point for all. The great point to which I shall come tonight, with God’s help, is the glory of the Lord. I do not think this section of the gospel would be complete if we did not reach that point. And indeed, our fellowship as Christians here depends upon the Lord. Saints were formed in fellowship down here by the testimony of the Lord; and when in that fellowship they were instructed in the truth of the Head and the body, in what the apostle speaks of as the mystery, which gives us the vital unity of saints. But that is not their fellowship; fellowship, as I understand it, is not connected with the thought of the one body, but with saints being gathered to the name of the Lord: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”. That makes me say, therefore, that if we had not the truth of this chapter, there would be a lack as to a gathering point; but I think this lack is supplied in chapters 11 and 12.
I will glance first at what has been already before us. In beginning with chapter 7 I pointed out that the characteristic truth of the present time is the presence of the Spirit, that is, that Jesus being glorified, the Spirit is given. When the Lord spoke on the last day of the feast, as recorded in chapter 7, the Spirit had not yet come — the Spirit “was not [p. 48] yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified”; and He points on to a time when the Spirit would be given; and shows what would be the effect of the giving of the Spirit, in bringing to pass something of entirely a different character from all that had been before. The Lord says, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water”: there never had been the like of that before. The effect of Christ’s work on earth was to leave a vessel for the Spirit; the Spirit had come upon Him without measure after His baptism, and when He went He left, as the effect of His work, a vessel for the Spirit, a vessel cleared by redemption.
The next point which I dwelt upon was that of Christ as “the light of the world”; and I showed that, by the very fact of His being the light of the world, of necessity everything in regard to the world was tested. A dispensation marked by the presence of the Spirit could not be established until the world had been set aside; the world and the Spirit could not go on together. I dwelt on this in connection with the passage, “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, [p. 50] and that they which see might be made blind”; and I must say another word or two about the passage for it is so exceedingly important. The Jews were perfectly conscious that Christ was here in the ministry of grace. He gave them evidence that His mission here was to raise man up from every effect and consequence of sin. The Jew knew that; and I argue from it that he knew that the light that came in by Christ was the light of grace. The Jew had had the light of law and prophets, which was certainly light in darkness, but light only in measure; whereas in Christ the light was full, the light of grace. Law was intended to bring home to man the conviction of where he was as to his condition; but never [p. 49] raised him up out of it. You find that in chapter 5; law never raised up the man who had been helpless thirty-eight years; Christ raised him up. Thus the Jews knew that Christ was here in the ministry of grace. But although it was the light of grace, yet by the very fact of its being light, it of necessity exposed. In chapter 8 it is shown that in the presence of Christ the Jew felt himself to be exposed; but as he did not care to be exposed, in result he rejects the light; in that sense he puts it out. And I can understand it very well, for on the one hand the Jew had no sense that the judgment of death was upon him, and on the other hand he believed in the competency of man. It is like plenty of people in the present day, they have no sense that the judgment of death is upon them, they attribute death to natural causes and ignore the judgment of God, and they believe in the competency of man’s mind, just like the Jew. And therefore in the very nature of things they must reject light. In what follows in chapter 8 the Jew sets up all kinds of pretension; but he is exposed, and the Lord goes on patiently till the exposure is complete. They claimed to be the seed of Abraham and the children of God; but the Lord shows that there was no trace of moral resemblance between Abraham and them, or between God and them. Thus the Jew rejects revelation, that is, the word of Christ. But another thing follows on that, he rejects Christ’s work, while declaring his inability to judge of it. If the work of grace is brought into the presence of people who reject revelation, they will account for it by some natural means, they will say the object of it is under some kind of delusion, or has turned religious, and so on, and in that way they refuse or discredit the evidence of Christ’s work. But the result is this “For judgment”, the Lord says, “I am come into this world, that they which see not might see,
and that they which see might be made blind”.
That is the second point. The first is that the time has come which is marked by the presence of the Spirit. The second, that the world has been tested by the light, and has rejected both the word and the work of Christ. Now consequent upon that, the Lord has formed something entirely new. He had come into the sheepfold and He leads the sheep out; they have not to go first, but He leads them out, and when He has led them out He goes before them like a shepherd. But further, He has other sheep which He must bring, and there is to be one flock and one shepherd. One flock living in the life of Christ: the flock lives in the life of the shepherd, that is the idea to me of the flock and the shepherd. I believe it is not fellowship, not a public association, but a vital unity, analogous to Paul’s truth of the one body, which is the body of Christ: “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another”. That is the privilege and blessing of the saints. Through Jesus, Jew and Gentile both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. If they are alive to their privilege, saints are properly in the Father’s presence in the life of Christ. Another phase of it is, “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren”; that is, we are in a company, and conscious of being in a company, that are bound up together in the life of Christ. I should not care about a miniature flock, or a little representation of the flock; I could not accept that for a moment, because the whole flock is here. I do not believe the flock is any more understood by the world than is the shepherd, but the flock and the shepherd are bound together in one life; that is, it is not they that live, but it is Christ who lives in them. So we read, “We, being many, are one body in Christ”; we “are all one in Christ Jesus”; not one publicly,
[p. 51] but one in Christ Jesus. It is privilege, and is esteemed as such where it is apprehended that Christ is the Head.
I have gone over these scriptures because I thought it was needed, in order to lead on to the truth on which fellowship practically hangs, that is, the glory of the Lord: you must be led to the Lord, not only to know that Christ is the good Shepherd and knows His sheep, but that Christ is Lord. And the effect of the apprehension of Christ as Lord is, that it brings you at once into the light of the day; as the apostle says in Ephesians, “Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord”. You cannot connect the Lord with this world; for Christ’s title “Lord” belongs to another world, what the apostle speaks of in Hebrews as “the world to come”. Darkness has set in upon this world, but in apprehending Christ as Lord, we come into the light of the world to come; and it is to that this chapter brings you. The Lord says, “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to me”. The Lord having been lifted up, we are drawn to Him on the ground of redemption; and by the fact of being drawn to the Lord, we are drawn into fellowship one with another, that is the way in which it works.
Now I desire to speak a little about the glory of the Lord. In anticipation of the sufferings of Christ, God permitted witness to be borne to Him in all that He was; to every part of His glory as man. There are three characters in which the Lord is presented to us in John 11 and 12. In chapter 11, He is glorified as Son of God in the raising of Lazarus; Jesus says, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”. That is, in anticipation of His death, God bore witness to [p. 52] Him as Son of God. In chapter 12, witness is borne to Him by the crowds, in the entry into Jerusalem, as King of Israel. Then in connection with the desire of the Greeks expressed to Andrew and Philip to see Jesus, the Lord bears witness to its being the moment for the glory of the Son of man; He says, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified”. I think those three aspects constitute the glory of Christ as man. That is what I want to bring before you; and may God enable me to say a word or two as to it, for it is of much moment to us. The apprehension of the glory of the Lord has the practical effect of drawing saints out of the world. And there is another effect it has upon us, it makes us like one another; “We all with unveiled face beholding ... the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image”; it brings us practically into fellowship.
Now, “Son of God” I understand to be the title of Christ incarnate; I should hardly use “Son of God” as referring to His eternal Person, for which “the Son” is usually employed; He is the Son in contra-distinction to the Father. There are three divine Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. In John 5 we have, “The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do”; it is one divine Person in relation to another; “What things soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise”. When He is spoken of as the Son of God, it is according to Psalm 2: “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee”; He is begotten in time. As Son of God, He is the last Adam; He is victorious over death, and a life-giving Spirit; that is what “the Son of God” conveys. It was proved very distinctly in the resurrection of Lazarus that He had complete authority over death, that is the first point (as now He says in Revelation 1, “I have the keys of hell and of death”); and secondly, He raises man up in life. Those are two things which belong properly to the Son of God; and they are not equivalent, because it is one thing to set death aside, and another to raise man up. Death had to be set aside for man as the judgment of God; but then man needs to be raised up in life, like the paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda. But in order that man may be raised up, the sentence of death must first be taken off him, and both things belong to the Son of God; He effects both; it is His office, His place as last Adam. Death came in by the first Adam, death is set aside by the last Adam; and He is a life-giving Spirit. That is what is connected with the Son of God, and is illustrated in the resurrection of Lazarus. How did He put death aside? By Himself dying. “Except a corn of wheat [p. 55] fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”; He puts sin away by the sacrifice of Himself, and He goes into death in order that He may annul death, and He has “brought life and incorruptibility to light by the gospel”. I do not say He always raises man up in the same way; the Christian is raised up in one way, according to the Lord’s word in John 5, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live”; and He raises up Israel in another way in the time to come. But whoever is raised up, whether it be the church now, or Israel in the future, is raised up by Christ; the One who has annulled death is the One who raises up in life, The raising up of Lazarus is the figure of it; it was “for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby”.
The next thing is the King of Israel. What is connected with that is that He demonstrates to this world the faithfulness of God, and brings in “the sure mercies of David”; for in Isaiah it says, “I will give you the sure mercies of David”. If you [p. 54] read the Psalms, you will find the prominent idea in them is the faithfulness of God; God is faithful to David and to David’s seed, and Christ, David’s seed, the King of Israel, brings in in His own person the sure mercies of David.
As regards the Son of man, what is connected with that title is that it is of the One under whom the world to come is put. In Hebrews 2 we read that unto angels He has not put in subjection the world to come; the world to come is put under the Son of man. He is the One who has tasted death for everything, and God “has put all things under his feet”; He is called to sit at God’s right hand until His foes are made His footstool; and when He comes into the world He does not come for judgment (though He does judge), but judgment is the means to introduce blessing. He puts down every enemy, every opposer; and universal dominion belongs to Him as Son of man, and He uses it to fill the world with blessing.
I trust that you may take in these three thoughts in connection with Christ; He is the Son of God, who, having annulled death, raises up man in life: He is the Son of David, to bring in the sure mercies of David, and to fulfil everything which God has promised: and He is the Son of man, with the world to come put under Him to fill with blessing. Now, all this is comprised in the idea of Lord; and I may add that you do not get Christ presented here as second Man, that is as pattern of a race, but as last Adam, that is as a life-giving Spirit, and as such a gathering point. He says, “I, if I he lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me”. I understand by it that He will draw all to Him in the glory of His person. Witness is given in this way to the glory of Christ as Son of God, King of Israel, and Son of Man; but then for the moment all ends in death; the Lord says, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”; He must go into death to accomplish redemption, but if the corn of wheat die it brings forth much fruit. And then another thing comes out in connection with this: the world is judged, everything has been brought to an issue in the world. The world would not have the light, it would not bear to be exposed, and for the world all closes in darkness: “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out”. The Lord was not coming into the world to establish His rights, but He was going to be a point of attraction outside of it. That marks this moment; it is Christ known in the glory of His person as Lord, and His glory forming a point of attraction. It is the contrast to His coming out to establish blessing here in the world. In the early days of the church, saints were all gathered by testimony to the Lord. And in our days, our fellowship is that we “follow righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”; “the Lord” is the gathering point.
And there is another thing connected with it; that the apprehension of the glory of the Lord has a great moral effect upon us. I have alluded to one passage, but there are others. “We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour”; we are attracted there; “Beholding the glory of the Lord” we are all “changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit”. The apprehension of the glory of the Lord must have a great moral effect upon us; for the thought of it fills the word, scripture is lighted up with the glory of the Lord. If you fail to apprehend Christ in the three aspects in which I have spoken of Him, it proves that you have but little light on scripture. But if you apprehend Christ as thus presented, you will find in what a remarkable way all scripture is lighted up to you;
[p. 56] for all these thoughts were ever in the mind of God, the Spirit of God had this before Him when He began to indite scripture. Scripture is full of it; people may not have eyes to see it; but when once your eyes are opened to the glory of the Lord, you will find that you have the key to scripture. “The Lord is the spirit”, in contrast to the letter, as we read in 2 Corinthians, He is the spirit of scripture; and the glory of the Lord is the subject of scripture, as the Holy Spirit is the Author of scripture. It is as lifted up on the ground of redemption, and with His glory revealed to the soul, that Christ becomes, as Lord, the attractive gathering point to all here, whether Jew or Gentile.
All this is in connection with the judgment of this world. Thick darkness has come upon the world, consequent upon the rejection of Christ; all the moral principles of the world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life”, are to us exposed as being “not of the Father, but of the world”. And it is exposed by the revelation of what is the opposite to it. Love is the opposite of lust; and by the very fact of God revealing Himself as love in Christ, all that is contrary to it comes out also. The purpose of love is to gratify its objects; lust ever seeks its own gratification. The world is full of lust and ambition; but “God is love”; that is, God lives, if I may use the expression, in the blessing of others: “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him”. Every activity of God springs from love; and if there is light in the heart of the believer, the light is the revelation of God in love. Of course light exposes everything, just as it did the Jew, who knew that the light was the light of grace, though he did not care to be exposed, because he did not like to come to the humiliating thought [p. 57] that he was incompetent. There are plenty of people in the present day who are in the same boat. But when it is brought home to a man, by the Spirit of God, that the judgment of death is upon him, he begins to feel himself incompetent. It is a great thing when you know that you are such as Christ has exposed you to be, with an evil will opposed to God; for then you begin to “see”, and then it is that you are drawn out of the world to the One who is the good Shepherd.
Now, as I said before, we get in chapter 10 vital unity, and in chapter 12 the glory of the Lord as the true basis of christian fellowship down here; that is, that in the revelation of His glory, we get the point of gathering, the proper basis of our fellowship. As I said before, the general principle of John is to take the opposite order to Paul. Paul would give us first what is connected with the Lord, and then the truth of the body; John gives us first what is essential, the truth of the flock and the shepherd, and then the glory of the Lord as the gathering point for saints down here.