EXTRACT – WEALTHY TOWARDS GOD
… there is nothing more precious than that we should get a true thought of the greatness of Christ. It is greatly to be desired. A simple and humble soul, with no learning of this world at all, who has a true, even if feeble, sense of the greatness of Christ, is most acceptable to heaven – heaven delights in such a soul. And so you find that such a soul as that can be commanded. We could not have a true sense of the greatness of Christ without being commanded by it.
So the poor widow (Luke 21) comes upon the scene as far greater in the estimation of heaven than the temple and all the consecrated gifts. Not one stone was going to be left upon another in the temple. All that public system was going to disappear, and all the right gifts which men had ostentatiously given were going to disappear. But this poor widow … had an appreciation of the blessed God. That was more to God than all the costly gifts that Solomon presented when the temple was consecrated. I suppose it was the best day in the history of the temple! And the Lord would not have missed for anything being there to see those two mites, which is a farthing2, thrown into the treasury. It was worth coming from heaven to see a woman who was so dominated by devotion to God that all her living went into the treasury of God. What a spectacle for angels and for the blessed God Himself! Now, morally, that is the result of apprehending the greatness of Christ. The result is, if we get the right thought of the greatness of Christ, well, He is worthy of the utmost devotion of every heart that knows Him. And so this woman, this great figure, is a greater figure in the history of the temple than Solomon.
What was thought of her? You can fancy the condescending smile with which the officiating priest would regard this insignificant trifle. Probably they thought, 'What a foolish woman, she needs it herself, and it is nothing in this pile of treasure – it is nothing'. They might have smiled as they saw it, but with a smile of contempt. But that which was contemptuous in their eyes was the wonder of heaven. God had succeeded in proving before the universe that He could make a human being love Him with heart, soul, mind and strength, and give all to Him. God's great triumph! The temple had to come down after that! It had served its purpose. No wonder that no stone was to be left upon another. Sometimes when a thing reaches the climax of its glory, it goes. God has no object in further retaining it.
… [This poor widow] had a profound sense of God's sufficiency, acquired through experience of having nothing but God. It is wonderful to have nothing but God, and to find that He is sufficient, to find that in saying 'nothing but God' you have just said everything. I have heard an old sister say, 'I have no resource now but the Almighty', as if she was very badly off! It is really laughable, but that is your heart and mine.
… It is very interesting to see the steps. You get prayer characterising the temple. Prayer is man in complete dependence on God. And then you get the assertion of divine authority in the way of grace, and on that basis you get the maintenance of all the rights of God as seen in the vineyard which is now entrusted to us; it is given to others, it is given to us to maintain all the rights of God. And then we are to recognise the government of God whether in the world or in the church; we have to recognise the government of God and to be humbled as to it. At the same time, we are not to surrender the rights of God, notwithstanding His government. You see everything secured in resurrection for God, and everything resting on the greatness of the person of Christ, and then you get this devoted heart yielding all to God. It is the most wonderful picture. That is the temple teaching. It puts everything in its right place, so that man gets his right place in dependence and the rights of God are fully owned in every sphere. All is secured in resurrection on the ground of the greatness of the Person of Christ, and then you get a widowed heart bereft of everything as to this world, with nothing before her but God.
Now a heart with nothing before it but God as revealed in Christ is a heart that is wealthy Godward. So that the Lord could say that she had cast in more than all the rest. They had silver and gold and costly jewels, but only the expression of their poverty Godward. They were really adorning the man that is an offence to God. But here is a poor widow that is filled with God, without a thought of herself. What a triumph! I do not know anything that will be much more interesting in scenes of glory than to get alongside that widow and to ask her how she came to such a blessed apprehension of God! I believe we shall learn it by and by. She is introduced to us as having reached … the blessedness of God within the human heart; how she reached it is veiled, it is one of the blessed secrets reserved for us by and by. I look forward to having a word with that widow!
From C A Coates Volume 31, pp.217 – 219