GRACE REIGNING THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS UNTO ETERNAL LIFE
[p. 173] THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST
Matthew 16: 13 - 20; 28: 16 - 20
What I am going to speak about now connects itself with what has been previously before us. I was speaking about Christ as “Head”, and now I want to speak about Christ as “Lord”.
The terms “Head” and “Lord” are centred in one Person, but they evidently convey two distinct ideas; the two ideas were not realised at the beginning in Adam. I think Adam had dominion, but I could not talk of him as Lord; but undoubtedly we get the idea of Head in Adam. In that way he is the figure of Christ, and is employed in that light in Romans 5. One important point connected with “Lord” is that it represents in a man the authority of God. We have the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; the authority of God presented in a Man. You get this thought at the close of the gospel of Matthew; Christ is speaking to His disciples as a Man yet on earth (verses 18 - 20). So far as I can judge, it presents the authority of God in a Man when God is fully revealed. I do not think you properly get the idea of Lord until that point: God was fully revealed. The injunction was, “Baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, and in that connection the thought of authority comes in; all authority was given to Christ in heaven and upon earth.
I said last time that in the ways of God it was impossible for the kingdom to come in until there was the Head. The reason was that apart from the Head there was no quickening power. Man was under sin and death, and hence quickening power needed to come in; but quickening power could only come in by One who could take up the liabilities under [p. 174] which man was, and that One was Christ, in the light of Head. He took up the liabilities under which man was — death and the curse of a broken law — that He might become a life-giving spirit to men. I suppose no one would have any difficulty in seeing that apart from such a Head it was impossible for the kingdom of God to come in. The kingdom of God would have been fruitless otherwise. You could not get the kingdom of God in Old Testament times; everything looked on to the kingdom, but the kingdom waited until the Man came.
Hence you see that the place of Christ as Lord, which is connected with the kingdom, is dependent on the fact of His being the Head. I look upon Christ as the Head of every man, the pillar of the moral universe. The whole universe of God is to be filled with Christ; it is upheld by Him, and He fills all. It has often been said that while He came to remove what was contrary to God, He Himself occupies the ground which he has cleared; He supports all and fills all, “That he might fill all things”. We have to face the great truth of our displacement in the death of Christ that He may fill all. The displacement is a fact for God; the great thing is when it becomes a fact for us, when we are prepared to let Christ fill all. We may take up the phraseology, but that is a very different thing from the reality. The apostle says, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. Christ filled the apostle.
But to speak of Christ as Lord. It is simple enough to see that the title “Lord” connects itself with the kingdom; it is that which led me to turn to the passages I have read. I want to give you a thought or two as to the bearing and importance of it. The first thought connected with the Lord is that He presents to us the authority of God. The authority of God at the present time is connected with grace; grace has come out in power; that is what marks the kingdom [p. 175] of God. When the kingdom of God is set up in the world publicly it will be grace acting in power. This was seen in measure in David in regard to Israel; grace was acting in power for the deliverance of the people. So in the present time grace has asserted itself in power, and by-and-by this will be in a public way. Another thing will come in, beyond all manner of question: there will be the puffing down of proved lawlessness, when it has reached its climax in the man of sin. But at the same time, that is not exactly the kingdom; it is preparatory to the kingdom, and when the kingdom comes in, its character is grace asserting itself in power. That represents the authority of God. It is only by the authority of God that grace can assert itself. Where can grace come from except from God? Who can be the fountain of grace except God Himself? If grace asserts itself it is the kingdom of God; hence the present effect of the kingdom is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”.
Now the Lord foreshadowed this when He was here upon earth. In John 1 it is said of Him that He declared God. How? He came full of grace and truth. The law was given by Moses; that was not the kingdom. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”; then it adds, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. The One who came full of grace and truth declared God. The cross held the same character; it was the declaration of God. Moses’ ministry was law; Christ came full of grace and truth.
But in connection with the ministry of Christ upon earth there was power; it was not simply grace. They who heard Him wondered at His words of grace; but it was not only words of grace proceeding from His mouth: there was power. At the very outset of His ministry Christ bound the strong man, and [p. 176] then He set to work to spoil his goods. The strong man kept his house, and his goods were in peace, but then a stronger had come. It would be a poor thing to think only of gracious words in the mouth of Christ down here: there was authority and power to command the unclean spirits, and they came out. That marked His ministry. He was presenting the authority of God; grace had seen fit to assert itself in power, and authority was there for the deliverance of man. The gracious words made God known in His gracious thoughts toward man; but there was authority and power which commanded the unclean spirits, and they came out.
Now a point in connection with that is, that authority and power were not against man; they were against the power of evil, against demons. You cannot, I think, find an instance in which the Lord used power and authority against man: He used it against that which held man in bondage. Men and women were bound under the power of evil; Christ cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene, a legion of demons out of the demoniacs of Gadara. The unclean spirits obeyed Him; they never resisted. He commanded, and they came out.
This shows you how that in the ministry of the Lord Jesus here upon earth He was making clear the lines of the kingdom. The kingdom did not really come in, so long as Christ was upon earth, but at all events the character of it was foreshadowed. The principle was grace asserting itself in power, and that marks this moment. The gospel abounds in words of grace; but the gospel is not here simply in words of grace, but in the power of the Holy Spirit. It would be but a poor thing for man to be affected by words of grace. He is to be enlightened by words of grace, but that is not all; the gospel is accompanied by divine power, in order that man may be brought into salvation. You could not have salvation without power;
[p. 177] you could not entertain such an idea for a moment. Grace may, in a certain sense, be conveyed in words; but salvation, though through faith, involves power, and it is impossible for anyone to be brought into salvation except by power. Salvation is properly connected with the coming of the Lord, with the power in which the Lord comes in the future. “Unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation”. In the eye of God man is in bondage to the power of evil, and Christ has come in to make God known to man, so that man may be brought by the power of God into the enjoyment of salvation. This power is now in the Holy Spirit.
I refer to Matthew 16 again in connection with the commission at the close of the gospel of Luke. Jesus says to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven”. There is no doubt whatever that the keys are used in Scripture as a symbol of administration. The Lord had the keys, and He gives them to Peter: He conferred upon Peter the privilege of opening the door into the kingdom of heaven.
But in verse 18 Christ had said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”. The kingdom could not be brought in until the church existed, because whoever went out to preach must have behind him a living witness of the grace of God. The Lord speaks of forming the church first; then He commits to Peter the keys of the kingdom. When Peter went forth to preach, he preached the kingdom of heaven — not in words, but in fact — and in preaching the kingdom of heaven, Peter knew that he could appeal to the living witness of the grace of God upon earth. The church which Christ had built was the living witness here upon earth of the grace of God. The kingdom of heaven was not preached until the living witness was [p. 178] here. Hence I judge that you could not get the administration of the kingdom until the church existed; it was not according to God that it should be so. I believe the support of the truth is the living witness of the grace of God down here, and you may be sure that power as connected with the gospel depends on the state of the witness. If the witness is obscured, you will not see very much power in connection with the gospel. I see the immense importance of the church to the gospel, and that the gospel cannot be maintained in power apart from the church. If men go forth regardless of the living witness and display great energy in the gospel, I am confident that they are not in the mind of Christ. I do not say they may not have gift or ability, or be acquainted with truth and able to preach, but they are not in the mind of Christ. On the day of Pentecost the church was built. There never was any other building; the building has been extended since, but there is no other building, and there will be no other until the Lord comes. The purpose of the Lord’s ministry here was to build His assembly, to gather a little company together of which He was the centre; and the Holy Spirit descended on the day of Pentecost and the church was presented to God in the sanctification of the Spirit. Thus in preaching the kingdom not only was the servant testifying what he knew, but he had behind him all the moral strength of what Christ had built; there was the living witness, down here, of the grace of God. Peter had nothing to do with the building of the church; what was committed to him were the keys of the kingdom.
In Acts 2: 30 - 39 we find Peter acting on the authority of the Lord and under the Lord’s administration. Heaven was asserting itself here upon earth — that is what the kingdom of heaven meant; and when I speak of heaven, I mean the light which God had set in heaven, which was asserting itself here upon [p. 179] earth. If you get up early in the morning, you will find the sun asserting itself: the sun rises above the horizon, and asserts itself in light and warmth. That conveys to me the idea of the kingdom of heaven. It is the light which God has set in heaven, asserting itself in the way of testimony upon earth. Peter testified by the Holy Spirit what God had done in heaven; Jesus was exalted to the right hand of God, and made Lord and Christ; and there is the appeal to the people to repent and be baptised in His name for the remission of sins. They might have spoken of the gracious words which proceeded out of the mouth of Peter: they were words of grace, because they were witness of the gracious administration of Christ. Christ asserted Himself in the administration of grace on earth; that marked the day of Pentecost. The Lord might have asserted Himself in the execution of judgment; but instead of that He asserted Himself in the administration of grace by Peter here upon earth, and therefore Peter could speak to people about remission of sins. Remission of sins was a means to an end, and the end was that they might receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The grace of God which brings salvation to all men had appeared; it appeared here to the Jew, and would appear in due season to the Gentile. Peter was using the keys which Christ had entrusted to him; he was acting in the administration of the kingdom, and the kingdom asserted itself in the way of testimony by gracious words at the mouth of Peter. Those who believed received the gift of the Holy Spirit, the effect of which was to bring them into salvation. The Jews were not going to be delivered at that moment from the Roman power, restored to their place in the world or to the promises of God, but there was deliverance from the power of evil by the Holy Spirit. The testimony of Peter was sealed in them by the gift of the Holy Spirit. But whilst Peter was preaching in that way,
[p. 180] there was the living witness, the building of Christ. Peter could have said to them, If you want an expression and witness of the grace of God here, it is upon earth in the company of people to whom the Holy Spirit has come.
I refer to this in connection with the ministry of Peter under the administration of Christ; it was not Peter acting according to his own intelligence; it was Peter taking up the keys which Christ had entrusted to him. In the present day, anyone who would go out in the testimony of Christ, cannot go unless sent: “How shall they preach except they be sent?” A man has to be sent. Paul said to Archippus, “Take heed to the ministry that thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it”. It does not want a Paul to preach the glad tidings of the grace of God now; but any evangelist who goes out does so under the Lord’s administration down here.
I come now to the question of power and authority, and that is an extremely important point as connected with the Lord. I think the kingdom means security for man; there is no doubt that the kingdom will be set up in the future for that end. The kingdom means to us “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”. How is that going to be brought about now, except by the power of the Holy Spirit? The Lord, when here, was acting by the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God”, etc. Now, how do you think you and I are to have liberty from the power of evil? One point in connection with Christ is that He came, not only in grace but “full of grace and truth”. As Christians we begin with truth. I understand truth to be the expression of things as they are, not as they appear to be. A great deal in this world is very artificial: men cover up what they are with a great deal of appearance, leaven, honey, and so on, and things are not what they appear. Now, in the idea of truth, all is seen as it is. Truth [p. 181] acts in that way from the top to the bottom; man’s eyes are opened, and he gets the apprehension of God as He is — Christ is seen as He is, man, idolatry, everything. When the gospel went out to the Gentiles they were idolaters; they did not know what was behind their dumb idols, but the effect of the gospel being proclaimed among them was that idolatry came out in its own nakedness. They learnt that behind idolatry was the power of evil. Truth had come in, and everything was seen as it was. And how were they delivered from the power of evil? By the power and authority of Christ. That is what the Holy Spirit brings into the believer. It is not power and authority against man; it is power and authority against that by which man is oppressed. Suppose India were in rebellion, and the Prince of Wales went there on behalf of the King to put it down; he could not go in his own power and authority, because he has none; but the power and authority of the King would not be against the Prince of Wales. I have no doubt he would be affected by it; but, at the same time, the power and authority would be that of the King against what was evil and contrary to the authority of the King. It is in that way that the power and authority of Christ works in the believer, and maintains the believer as against the power of evil. The power of evil is very real; there are many things to which we are exposed, and which might very readily hold us in bondage. Sometimes we have to withstand the wiles of the enemy, the allurements of the world, or to meet open hostility and opposition to the truth. You do not suppose you are going to get through the world without meeting evil; we have to meet evil influences here, and it is no small matter to stand against them. How are you going to stand in the evil day? I only know one way, and that is the way spoken of in Scripture: “Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”. The fact is that the [p. 182] power and authority of the Lord are maintained in the soul, not as against man, but as against all that which is contrary to God and to the believer. In the power and authority of Christ, the believer can stand here against all evil, by the same power and authority with which Christ cast out devils when He was here. You are not terrified by your adversaries, nor overawed by evil; you stand in the power and authority of the Lord as against the power of evil. You are not strong in the power of your might — you have none — but in the power of His might, against all the influences of evil which govern man. When you see men under all kinds of influences, some under the power of the world, some infidel, some superstitious, they are in bondage; they have not got the truth. We cannot stand in the power and authority of the Lord unless our loins are girt about with truth. We are thus exposed, and everything is exposed. It is a great thing to see the world as it is — all that is artificial stripped away: that is what truth gives you — and above all, to see God as He is, and Christ as He is; then you can stand here in the power and authority of Christ. But the first piece of the armour of God is, “loins girt about with truth”; then you have on the breastplate of righteousness.
One word more. You get another thought in connection with the Lord: in special emergencies He can stand by His servants. This comes out in a very special way in connection with the ministry of Paul. There were certain moments in the career of Paul when he was under great pressure; but what do you find in those crises? When He was liable to be cast down, the Lord stood with him. You get a touching instance of it in 2 Timothy; in his first answer all men had forsaken him, but the Lord stood with him, and strengthened him. He needed special strength, in a way, that by him the preaching might be fully known, etc. (verses 16 - 18). And the Lord would preserve [p. 183] him from every evil work. That was Paul’s experience of the Lord.
There are thus two things connected with the Lord — the administration of grace, and the interest of the Lord in connection with the testimony down here. But there is the other principle, that the power and authority of the Lord works through His people, in order that they may be able to withstand all the power of evil down here upon earth. Every form of evil which Satan can array against you, you can withstand in the evil day, only “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might”. Nothing interests me so much as the apprehension of the great moral elements of Christianity in which its strength lies.
People have taken up Christianity too dogmatically. The point in Christianity is the moral elements which it has brought to light, consequent on the revelation of God: light, righteousness, holiness, truth, peace, wisdom, and a great many other things. Christianity takes up these words and gives its own peculiar meaning and light to them, for they are apprehended in connection with the light of the revelation of God.