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(ii)

Andrew Martin

I was struck with the words of the hymn we started with this morning which referred to the Lord Jesus as ‘in our place’. I was thinking of Him as the One who took our place and of the way the Lord Jesus came in. He came in and took our place and took our place by going into death. He has also gone into glory and in glory He has prepared a place for us. You remember when Solomon built the temple, he dedicated it and in that long prayer referred to what he had built; Solomon was obviously impressed with the greatness of God, and he said, “behold … the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built!” 2 Chron 6: 18. Solomon had an impression of God in His infinite character as being completely beyond anything created, “the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee”.

John the writer begins this gospel by speaking of the Lord Jesus as being in the beginning, “In the beginning was the Word” (chap 1: 1). That One whom John referred to as the Word is the full expression of the mind of God; He was in the beginning, before time was. I think that is involved in that expression. When John writes His epistle he speaks about One who was from the beginning, that is from that time onwards, “That which was from the beginning”, but here in the gospel he goes back before that, “In the beginning was the Word”, as far back as you can go, Jesus was there. In His infinite Person He was there, needing nothing, needing no-one, self-existent as to Himself, requiring not to be ministered to by men, as any creature is, but self-existent. His only need (there was a need) the need which was produced by His nature, love. That created a need that there should be an object on which it could settle.

There He was in all His greatness, the One whom the heaven of heavens could not contain and yet in need of an object, and that object was you and me. John is writing this filled with the greatness of that One and he says “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”. John does not describe the coming into manhood of the Lord Jesus as Matthew or Luke who describe it in a way that men could take up as a historical record. John does not do that. As filled with the greatness of the Person he speaks of the wonder that that One should become flesh, that He should come into such a condition as you and I are in and dwell among us, that He Himself should be found dwelling among us in nearness to men, that He Himself should be found as a Man dwelling among us. We know in some way from the other gospels how the Lord Jesus lived; there are hints as to it, how He was found dwelling among us. There were those who knew Him in that context as the One who dwelt among them, they said “Is not this the carpenter?”, in another place, “Is not this the son of the carpenter?” They knew His circumstances. He dwelt among us and I am quite sure that the Lord Jesus dwelling among men as a Man, was known by men as One who was different. Men would have seen that He would never have been involved in anything disreputable; they would have respected that. But also in the fact that He dwelt among them, that he was available for men’s needs. The things that He did, how perfect they were in every respect! Men could take account of that. I am quite sure that anybody who went to Nazareth (you can imagine, Nazareth was a little town, it was set in the hills), someone taking his horse and cart over the hills to sell something at the market, and something goes wrong, perhaps a wheel on the cart broke as it drew near to Nazareth, might get out and walk into the town, and ask somebody, Can you point me to a good carpenter, someone who can mend my cart. I am sure that people would say, There is nobody better, no-one whose workmanship is better that this One, His workmanship is perfect, everything He does is perfect, the materials He uses would be the best materials that were available and no-one will do a better job than Jesus. Nor would the Lord Jesus Himself have said, Give me the measurements, He would have gone out to where the trouble was and say, Show me what needs to be done. He would have gone to where the problem was. That was the kind of Man that Jesus was, and the apostle says, He dwelt among us, He was available. He came into men’s own condition. How the other carpenters in that area would have been put to shame as they would have taken account of the way in which the Lord Jesus was there in perfection, and in every way available to them. If someone had called at night, He would have got up; He would have attended to their needs. He would have said that it was no trouble; as men say today, it is all part of the service! That is the way in which men would have spoken about the Lord Jesus, that whatever needed to be done, there was one upon whom you could rely and He would have done it, and He would have done it well, and He would have done it whatever the cost to Himself.

He “dwelt among us”. Think of the Lord Jesus as being here amongst men, and displaying such goodness. The apostle says here, “dwelt among us … full of grace and truth”. The way He did things would have been full of grace and truth, and the Lord’s contact with men would have been like that. Think of the Lord’s words, the way in which He spoke to people, full of grace and truth. How it would have imparted something to the souls of all with whom He came in contact. They would have said, there is nothing about Him that is inconsistent, you never see another side to Him, He is always the same, He is full of grace and truth. “The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us … full of grace and truth”. That blessed One in all His lowliness and grace, His meekness, His going along with men. He was the One who the heaven of heavens could not contain, so great was He. He was the One who could speak and the words come to pass. How great He was! He came here full of grace and truth. John here was impressed with the greatness of that One. He might well review His pathway. Somebody once commented that, as John wrote about the Lord Jesus as the One by whom “All things received being … and without him not one thing received being which has received being” (v 3), John might well have just put his pen down and said, “To think, that He washed my feet”. The One who gave being to everything, became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. He served His own in that way. John says, “for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. The grace of the Lord Jesus was flowing throughout His life here. It is still flowing. Do not let anybody think that grace is not flowing today, grace is flowing today. The Lord Jesus is heaven, but grace is flowing today, let no-one try to tell you otherwise. The supply of it comes daily. Every day there is grace for the day. You might say, How can I be sure? It is true. As each day comes there is grace for it, and you might say, Why do we worry about tomorrow then? But that is because of what we are, but we can rest assured that there is grace for it, “grace upon grace”.

The Psalmist in Psalm 23 says, “goodness and loving-kindness shall follow me all the days of my life” (v 6). A brother once told me that that is the proof that it comes every day. It is not going before, but it is following you. That means that you look back and you see that it has been there. You might say, what about tomorrow? If you cannot face tomorrow, look at yesterday, and you see that goodness and loving kindness were there. Every step of the pathway you can look back, goodness and loving-kindness have been there. They have been there every day and here it is, “grace upon grace”. Every day there is a fresh supply of grace. It came in the life of Jesus here, and it comes today. It is just as true in the year 2001. Whatever the circumstances, whatever the pathway has to offer there will be grace for the day. Never doubt it, there will be grace. And John says, “of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace”. He then says, “For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”. In that One, grace and truth subsists. Why does John say that? What does the law give us? “The law was given by Moses”; why did John bring that in here? He is occupied with the Lord Jesus in all His greatness and perfection. What the law gave us was a sense of guilt. The law showed us that we are sinners; it made the fact that we are sinners manifest, nobody could argue with that. God has set a standard, He has articulated it in a code of law and what it showed was that every man was a sinner, no one could keep it. What was the answer for that? “Grace and truth subsist in Jesus Christ”. The answer for the sinner does not lie in the application of the law, the answer relies upon grace.

So the Lord Jesus came into this condition where men were sinners, He came in to be found amongst men. Not Himself to be found as a sinner, far from it, He was perfect in every respect. Did the law condemn Him? Not at all. He magnified the law and made it honourable, He came here to bring in what was greater than the law, He came to bring in grace. How could He do that? We sometimes sing:

God could not pass the sinner by

The sinner had offended so He could not pass him by, the only answer is in grace. God could not have come in in judgment upon man, because He had set up man to be here for His glory and if He had come in in judgment upon man it would have been saying that what He had set up was impossible and could never be accomplished and He would have failed of His purpose. There has to be another answer and that answer is in grace. The Lord Jesus stood in our place.

In chapter 3 He is speaking to Nicodemus and He refers to the way in which He has to go in order that grace should have its answer. He brings in Himself, the greatness of His Person, “no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”. I wonder what Nicodemus felt about that? The Lord Jesus had already set what to Nicodemus was a puzzle: He had said, “Except any one be born anew”, and Nicodemus had said that he did not understand. It brings out that it is not a natural activity at all. If you are listening to the gospel and you have an interest in the gospel, it means that the Holy Spirit has some work in your heart. Did you know that? There is a Person who is interested in you as an individual. If you find the gospel interesting at all, the Holy Spirit is working in your heart, it is He who is making it interesting to you. That is what the Lord Jesus means when He says, “Except any one be born anew”. There must be a work going on in the heart and the Holy Spirit would do that. If you find anything to do with divine thoughts pleasing, and they have an appeal, and you want to know more, you feel after it, that is evidence that God is working in your heart. It is something that you should really speak to Him about, because He would love to develop that work.

The Lord Jesus has spoken to Nicodemus about that, and now He sets him another thing which Nicodemus would find hard to understand - “no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven”. Think of the Lord Jesus speaking about Himself in this way. “He who came down out of heaven” - the greatness of that One who came down in the incarnation, the Son of Man who is in heaven. It brings out the greatness of who He is that He cannot be confined. In coming into manhood He accepted restriction - what restriction He accepted! He accepted restriction in coming into manhood, He who is infinite in Himself, but although He accepted restriction in coming into man’s circumstances, He Himself could not be limited. He is the Son of Man who is in heaven, He is there as the object of divine pleasure. In a sense He was there as the One in whom God had His pleasure before even time was. Not that He was the Son of Man before He came into manhood, but God had always had His pleasure in Him there and that blessed One who is found here as the Son of Man is the One who is in heaven, the One who is the eternal object of heaven’s delight. Here He presents Himself to Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, as “the Son of man”. He says to Nicodemus, I know that you are going to be looking for the One who is going to redeem Israel, and you are asking about the kingdom and all that Israel will enter into, but the One who is going to bring in blessing for Israel is the Son of Man. He goes wider than Israel to One who is available to all men. So as He says, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. Think of that! Remember how Moses was in the wilderness and the children of Israel had sinned against God and God sent a plague of serpents among them. They were biting the children of Israel who were dying from it, and the plague was there. They cried out and Moses spoke to God about it. It is all a figure of what sin is and the evil that is in man, and the evil that is in his system. The poison was working through men’s system. People were dying and God said, ‘Make a fiery serpent and put it upon a pole’. How good God is! He says, take the very thing that you can see, make a fiery serpent, and put it upon a pole, and lift it up for all to see. Think of the Lord Jesus, He came in the likeness of sinful flesh - not that he was sinful, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, in order that He should be lifted up that all may believe on Him. I love to think of God telling Moses to put it upon a pole. He might have said, Tell those people to go somewhere and look at it, but He did not say that. He said put it upon a pole, lift it up! Let everyone see it, let the whole camp look at it. God was not willing that men should die, God did not want the serpents to have the advantage over men. He said, put it upon a pole, let everyone in the camp see it. There would no excuse - all you had to do was look, just look at the One who was there, come into our condition, but was lifted up as the answer to the terrible question of sin that has ravaged humanity, that we find in our souls and hearts, and there He is lifted up there as the object for our faith. Imagine that word going round the camp, people saying, all you have to do is look at the serpent. It says, ‘they gazed intently at it’. Everyone who gazed intently at it was healed. Have you seen the Lord Jesus there, lifted up upon the cross? He was lifted up for you! If that serpent had not been lifted up upon the pole the poison would have done its work, there would have been no hope for man, there would have been an end of it, and that is what sin is like. It says, “thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish”. That is the natural end of man that he should perish. That is what man will do. It matters not how good or how bad a man is, that is the natural end of man, and indeed of everything, that it perishes. He says, “thus must the Son of man be lifted up, that every one who believes on him may not perish”. Do you believe on Him? It is a simple thing to do. Just to take account of the fact that He was there lifted up upon the cross for you. Why was He lifted up there for you? How was it that He was lifted up upon the cross for you? It meant that you should never perish but have life eternal. It was because, as lifted up upon the cross He was lifted up to bear your sins, to take them away from the sight of God for ever, that He should be there as made sin, that He should be forsaken of God, that He should bear the sins of many there upon the cross. Look on Him there, take account of Him there as the One who was there for you. He was there in order that you should never know God’s wrath as under sin, He was there in order that you should never have to answer to God for your sins at all. He was there to bear them as if they were His own. Think of that! The Psalmist speaks about it, “mine iniquities … are more than the hairs of my head”, Ps 40: 12. The Psalmist spoke that, prophetically of Jesus, as taking the sins of many upon Himself as if they were His own, and God’s wrath was poured out upon Him there upon the cross. God has no more to say about sin, as Jesus has borne the wrath of God against sin and borne it forever. “Thus must the Son of man be lifted up”. No one else could do that, as lifted up on the cross He bore our sins and then He laid down His life and shed His precious blood. The precious blood is there as the witness of that perfect life that was so acceptable to God, offered as a sin offering for God.

He says to Peter, “Where I go thou canst not follow me now”. You can understand that. He went into death as death truly is. I was recently looking for a type of the Lord going into death itself as a sphere. The Psalm speaks about Him going into Sheol. It struck me that the figures of death in the Old Testament are largely figures of a way through, rather than the terrible termination that man thinks about. Now, for the Lord Jesus it was absolute. He knew the awfulness of death and He went into it knowing fully what it involved, what it was to God; the One to whom death was abhorrent, He went into it as knowing that. He went into it as being the judgment of God against sin, He went into it too knowing the power of Satan because of man, not that Satan had any power against Him, but it was the realm that Satan had taken to hold over man and keep man in fear. He went into it and yet in His going into it, He has made it, for us, a way through. That is what the children of Israel found at the Red Sea and the Jordan; it was a way through. It was a great barrier while it was there, but God made the way through and the Lord Jesus says, “Where I go thou canst not follow me now”. He alone could undertake the work He was doing. “But thou shalt follow me after. Peter says to him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thee”. There is no doubt at all in my mind about Peter’s devotion. When Jesus says, “Thou wilt lay down thy life for me”, I do not think that was said in any ironic way, certainly not in any mocking way as men might. It could be read that way, but I do not think the Lord Jesus would say that. I think it was just the affirmation of the fact that, “Thou wilt lay thy life for me”. He knew that Peter would do that. But then He says, Peter you are weak, at the moment you are going to prove your weakness. He says, I know you love me, I know you would lay down your life for me, but as man you have to learn that you cannot go on in your own strength, you are going to deny me, “The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice”. Think of those words coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus. What a shock that would have been to Peter; what horror would have registered on his face, what a shock to the other disciples too. It is a dreadful thing to think that the one who was so devoted to Jesus should be told that he would deny Him thrice. The Lord Jesus would have seen the looks on their faces and immediately He says, “Let not your heart be troubled”. What grace that He should immediately say that!

If you go to Luke’s gospel, the Lord Jesus says to Peter, “Satan has demanded to have you … but I have besought for thee … and … when once thou hast been restored, confirm thy brethren”. He gave him that message first, you are going to be restored; that is grace. He says, I am telling you that you are going to be restored. What grace the Lord Jesus showed. Well here immediately He says, “Let not your heart be troubled”. Surely the Lord Jesus Himself was the One whose heart might be troubled. This was part of His way, part of the place that He was taking. He has taken our place in manhood here upon the earth, He was about to take our place here on the cross, but He says My pathway is not ending there. In John’s gospel the Lord’s pathway is not a path from the manger to the cross; it is a path, the way that led from God and returned to God, knowing that He came out from God and was going to God. That is the pathway of Jesus in John’s gospel.

He says, “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe on God, believe also on me”. That again was something quite new to the disciples. They had been brought up doubtless as God-fearing Jews and there was One who was to be honoured and venerated, and He says, “believe on God”, that is right. He says now you have a Man as an object of faith, “believe also on me”. Then He says, “In my Father’s house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place; and if I go, and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be”. I think the Lord Jesus was preparing His own here for the fact that our place is not here upon the earth. We are here as strangers. The Lord Jesus was here as a stranger. I remember some months ago a brother came to us in Redbridge. As he gave thanks for the loaf, He said, ‘Lord, this earth was a strange place to thee’. There was no commonality. The Lord Jesus was a heavenly Man there is nothing in common with the earth and a heavenly Man, the earth was a strange place to Him. It is to be strange to us. He says, “I go to prepare you a place”. In the synoptic gospels you read that Peter says, “we have left everything”, and the Lord Jesus says, nobody will leave their home without getting their reward, He says, “I go to prepare you a place … In my Father’s house”. The disciples must often have wondered about the Lord and His relations with the Father. He says, My Father has a house, a place where He dwells and you have a home there. You say well, that is something in the future: yes in its fulness it is, but it is something that we are going to enter into soon, and it may not be far in the future. We trust it is not far, we trust it is very soon. “In my Father’s house there are many abodes … I go to prepare you a place”, but even if it is in the future, I tell you that place is yours. I might say, it has your name on it. The Lord Jesus said that, “Your names are written in heaven”, there is a register of those who belong to that place, a list of names there. He says, “I go to prepare you a place”, a place is prepared for you there. “If I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself”. Think of that attitude. He has gone up on high, the Holy Spirit has come in order that we should receive our direction and our light the Holy Spirit gives us, our impressions of that place and indeed our impressions of the Lord Jesus Himself, and enjoyment of any spiritual blessing at all, until He comes. He says, “If I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again”. It does not say, If I go and shall prepare you a place a day will come when I will return, but He says, “I am coming again”. It shows His attitude to us that He is always, in that sense, in a state of readiness, “I am coming again”.

He gives me the sense of His presence

He cheers me with touches of love.

But soon it will be

In truth, I will see

My Saviour as with Him above.

Oh what will it be to see Jesus

And to gaze on His face evermore.

(A selection of Christian Verse p156 vv 3,4)

He says, You have a place with me within my Father’s house. We are here in this scene … but our place is above. May we constantly find ourselves resorting to Him there, finding the grace that flows Him every day, finding our enjoyment in that place where He dwells. For His Name’s sake.

SUNBURY

11 February 2001

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