EXTRACTS

Then in the epistle to the Ephesians we have the full light of the heavenly. We read there that

“Now in Christ Jesus ye who once were afar off are become nigh by the blood of the Christ ...

For through him we have both (Jew and Gentile) access by one Spirit to the Father”, Ephesians 2: 13, 18. “The blood of the Christ” is the blood of the sin-offering which has been put on the mercy-seat and the golden altar so that we might be made nigh “in Christ Jesus”.

This gives us an entirely new state and place with God outside everything that was connected with us as living in the world. That we should be before God in Christ Jesus, holy and blameless, and “sons with Him who is above”, is marvellous grace indeed. On the

ground of the sin-offering God has given to those who believe a heavenly place and relationship according to His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus. Yea, we are “taken into favour in the Beloved”, Ephesians 1: 6. That is in the glorified Man, the Object of the Father’s love in heaven, the One who said, “I go to prepare a place for you”, John 14: 2. Have we really taken this in? That His going to the Father has made that heavenly place ours? He is coming to receive us actually into the place where He is, but it is our place now as much as it will be when we are actually in it.

In Ephesians 2 the saints are viewed as “quickened with the Christ (ye are saved by grace), and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God’s gift—not on the principle of works, that no one might boast”, Ephesians 2: 5–9. Have we considered what it means to be “saved by grace” according to Ephesians 2? It means that we have an entirely new place with God, and that the place of Christ as a glorified Man in heaven. How many of us understand that heaven is our present place? Not merely that we shall be there when we die, or when the Lord comes. But that God’s salvation by grace has made it our place now, has secured for us at this present time the place of the risen and glorified Man—the anointed Head. Is not that infinitely better and greater than the best place—the best religious place even—that we could have on earth?

God would have us to know the character of approach to Himself which is secured by the Bullock of the Sin-offering. It is a larger apprehension of Christ than the Scapegoat, or the Goat for Jehovah. These will be known by Israel, but the Bullock is for the assembly. We ought to covet to have the largest possible thought of Christ, and of what He has secured

for us. Every one who has the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Spirit is of the assembly, and God would encourage each one to say in his heart, I belong to the heavenly company.

There is sometimes a feeling with believers that it would be presumption to take such high ground. But has the great love of God given us that place? If so, His pleasure must be that we should know and enjoy it. It has nothing to do with any worthiness or merit of ours. It is a question of the love of God, the value of the Sin-offering, and the preciousness of Christ to God. One might add, also, the riches of His mercy to us.

C. A. Coates (‘An Outline of Leviticus’, pp.199, 200) I pass on to chapter 16. Much intervenes in what follows, for John’s gospel is full of precious meaning; every word is full of it; no gospel deserves such concentration of attention as John’s. So we have these instances in chapter 16. Chapters 13 to 17 form one section; they refer to what the synoptic gospels record in a few words; all these chapters are spoken within, in the seclusion of love; so that we are now in the presence of the most precious communications of the Lord. He says, “the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God”. That is a challenge to our hearts; we should be concerned as to whether we are in the right circle. John’s ministry is bringing about a circle where love is known; these chapters unfold it. The Lord was in that circle where He was free to express all that was in His heart, all the Father’s affection for them—that they were the objects of the Father’s affection. These four chapters unfold to us what He said to them about the Father, and about the Spirit, and about His own affections towards them; and so here. He says, “the Father himself loveth you”. That is the circle with which the Lord is delighted, the circle that the Father loves, loving them indeed, as He says, “because ye have loved me”. He gives them credit for loving Him. Perhaps we

might think we have but little love for Christ, but the Father gives you credit for much more than you would think of. Take Moses for an example. The Spirit, speaks of his movements in Egypt—“By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter ... esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt”. If you had asked Moses how he regarded Christ, he could not have told you; it is the comment of the Spirit upon his movements, when he came out openly and claimed the Hebrews as his brethren. Identifying yourself with the people of God is esteemed as choosing the reproach of Christ. Not one of the worthies of the Old Testament would have said of themselves what the Holy Spirit says of them; they could not have the intelligence of persons who have the Holy Spirit, for they had their part in a different dispensation. So here the Lord says, “ye have had affection for me, and have believed that I came out from God”. You see the platform they were on; they believed that He came out from God, that He was not an ordinary man such as David or Solomon. They believed in His Person, and they had affection for Him. I would that everyone could take that in.

J. Taylor (Vol. 69, pp.384, 385)

One is impressed with the history of the people of God in the Old Testament; God’s extraordinary dealings with them as subjected to continual sufferings, one after another, covering an immense period; and what can it be but that they represent what we all are, only they are taken on as an example, in order that God may show how incorrigible the flesh is, and how patient He is—in reaching His end in us notwithstanding. If He is to reach His thought in any of us, what a process He has to go through so as to reach, in a small way, what He has in His mind.

J. Taylor (Vol. 47, p.44)

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