THE GLORY OF THE SON OF GOD

^[p. 48] THE GLORY OF THE SON OF GOD

Psalm 2: 7 - 12; Genesis 22: 1, 2; Genesis 37: 3; 1 Chronicles 17: 11 - 15; Isaiah 9: 6, 7; Proverbs 30: 4

CAC The great dignity of our Lord’s Person as in manhood is that He is the Son of God, and the great end of all gift and ministry is that we should come into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. And God was pleased, before His Son was actually found upon earth, to give intimations in the Old Testament of the great thoughts that would be connected with Him as bearing that wondrous name. Psalm 2 is the foundational scripture. It is perhaps the only scripture which directly attaches the title of Son to the Lord in the Old Testament. Therefore we do not wonder to find it quoted three times in the New Testament. There is something very impressive and striking in the fact that the Lord says prophetically, “I will declare the decree”. I do not know that there is any other scripture quite like that. It is a remarkable word as indicating a fixed and unchangeable purpose on God’s part. The great and marvellous reality that a divine Person would come into the world as Man, as born of a woman and bearing the title of Son of God, was the subject of an eternal “decree”. Everything for God and man depended on it. God would have an anointed Man, and that Man would be His Son. Nothing else that ever happened, or that ever will happen, is so great as that which has been thus decreed. It was the outcome of God’s determinate counsel, and He would have us to perceive the extraordinary greatness and dignity of this Person who should bear the title of Son of God. As born of the virgin He came into manhood and was addressed by God as His Son, begotten by Him. This took place on a particular day. That is, it is connected with time, not with eternity. “This day”; there was a specific “day” when the Son was begotten. As seen by Nathanael, He was confessed as the One spoken of in Psalm 2 — the Son of God, the King of Israel. The prophetic statement of the psalm had become history when it was quoted in Hebrews l. The thing had come to pass; the decree, the eternal decree, had been carried into effect.

Ques Is “the decree”, then, connected with eternity, and the begetting of the “Son” with time?

CAC Yes, the decree goes back to eternal purpose and counsel in view of all that God had in mind to accomplish for His own glory and the blessing of the creature. It is most establishing and confirmatory to faith to see that God has secured everything for His own glory and for man’s blessing by this decree. All hangs on the coming of a divine Person into manhood, as born of the virgin. The incarnation, as one has said many years ago, is the unshakeable pillar of the moral universe.

Ques What is the difference in the setting of Luke’s gospel, and John 1?

CAC In Luke’s gospel He is seen to have the glorious title of Son of God as found in the most lowly circumstances possible, as born of the virgin. His was the most humble nativity that possibly could be, but as contemplated in those lowly conditions He is spoken of as the Son of the Highest, and the Son of God. And as going with the repentant remnant to be baptised He was addressed by God as His beloved Son. It is as if the Spirit of God would clothe His humiliation with the greatest dignity and divine glory; “The holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God”. But in John 1 we see the Lord distinctly in relation to divine Persons. John speaks of Him as the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. That is His relation to the Father, and John, having said that, did not need to tell us that the Father’s voice came to Him. The other gospels tell us of the voice that came from the opened heaven and saluted Him as the beloved Son, but in John He does not need to be ^[p. 50] saluted; He is there in the most intimate nearness of relationship and affection. And then the One who sent John to baptise told him that the Person upon whom the Holy Spirit would descend and abide upon Him was the One who would baptise with the Holy Spirit. He is in the bosom of the Father, and His relation with the Spirit is that the Spirit comes down and abides on Him. He was a perfect resting place for the Spirit, so that both the Father and the Spirit are seen as having complete complacency in the Son as Man upon this earth. It is very beautiful, and it is of the utmost importance for us to realise that all this is connected with Him as having come within the range of our apprehension. It is a divine Person who has come into manhood, who can be contemplated, who can be seen and heard and even handled. A blessed Person brought into this world — begotten of God, His Son, His loved One — but He is within our range. We can apprehend Him, we can know Him as having that blessed title and character.

Ques How do we apprehend Him as Son of God?

CAC The apprehension of Him as Son of God is the climax of what is spiritually possible. We have in John 9 a marvellous picture of a man who traversed what Mr. Stoney used to call steps in light; he got his eyes opened, and then he took steps in light. He took one step after another in the deepening knowledge of the One who had opened his eyes, until that One said to him, “Dost thou believe on the Son of God?” That was the climax. “Who is he, Lord, that I may believe on him?” “Thou hast both seen him, and he that speaks with thee is he”. The result was worship; he became a worshipper of the Son of God, and we cannot really contemplate that Person without becoming worshippers. It is not a question of getting thoughts and ideas, but He is so glorious, so wondrous, He has such dignity, and yet withal He is so near to us in love that if we see Him at all we must worship Him.

Ques Is that the end of all the New ^[p. 51] Testament Scriptures?

CAC Yes, it is. Paul and John coalesce in the presentation to our faith and affections of the Son of God.

Ques Does he remain as Son of God in manhood for ever?

CAC Surely. Having come into manhood He never gives it up. So that as the Son He will eternally be placed in subjection, which shows that the Lord will never divest Himself of that peculiar glory which He has taken up in becoming Son of God in manhood, because if He did He would be invisible to us. But having become Man, and having become Son of God in manhood, He remains for ever Man, the object for our affections and our adoration. He is within our range as Man; that is His mediatorial glory.

Ques So that you would say that God has come within our reach?

CAC Yes, through the Mediator, who was as Man the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. There could not possibly be anything more intimate or more affectionate than the relation between that blessed Man and the Father. And it is said of that blessed One that He dwelt among us — He tabernacled among us. He came into the most blessed nearness to man, so that the great chasm that was between God and the creature is completely removed in the Mediator.

Ques A new relation in time?

CAC Yes, it is. The Spirit presents Him to us as a blessed Man in unique relation to God; no other man ever had the relation to God that He had; He was the only-begotten Son. Isaac is a type of Him in that character; Isaac is called Abraham’s only-begotten son in Hebrews 11, though as a matter of fact Abraham had other sons, but the Spirit of God, having Christ in mind, will not recognise any other son of Abraham’s but Isaac. So the blessed God says to him, “thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac”; God takes no account of Ishmael. And the reason was the supernatural character of his birth. Isaac was the child of promise and of resurrection power; he was born entirely apart from the ^[p. 52] natural course of events, and in that way he was typical of the miraculous conception and birth of the Son of God who was the only-begotten Son. Isaac was the heir; he was typical of the One who, as loved by the Father, can take up all the wealth of God and hold it so that it may be available for men; but nothing could be taken up except on the ground of His death. And so this great thought is connected with the only son in Genesis 22, that he is to be offered up as a burnt-offering. As the Heir the Son of God had personal title to take up every thought of God in relation to man, but then, if He were to be divine blessing for others He must take all upon the ground of death, and so He has been offered up. “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”. We who had no personal title can be blessed in Him; our title is established by Another and in Another.

Ques Is that the great thought in connection with Jehovah’s word to Abraham to offer up his only son?

CAC It must have meant very much to the blessed God to say that to Abraham, knowing that it was what He was going to do Himself. It is most important for us to get a great thought of the delight of God in that blessed Man, the absolute complacency of God in Him. “In thee I have found my delight”; it was that One who was wholly for God’s delight that has not been spared, He has been delivered up for us all. That is not a transaction taking place in the depths of Deity; it is a blessed Man, given in divine love, who comes within our view. We see the loved Son, we see what He is for the delight of God, and then we see the love of God manifested in that He was offered up.

Ques Would that command of God to Abraham set forth typically in time the decree that was in eternity?

CAC Yes, surely. And so Isaac is a type of Christ as the only-begotten Son, and the Heir, and the One who is offered up, and who subsequently gets a wife of His own kindred. Thus Isaac is peculiarly a type of the sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ as saints of the assembly know Him. In ^[p. 53] Psalm 2 we do not get all that, but we find that the One who is begotten is going to have the ends of the earth for His possession, and He is going to subjugate all His enemies. All will have to be subject to Him, and He is the One in whom men may put their trust. Men are called upon to kiss the Son, but we do not get His offering up in Psalm 2, or His getting a wife as in Genesis 24.

Ques In Hebrews where the greatness of the Person is set out, we are exhorted to give special attention to what we have heard. Would that be the greatness of the Person come into manhood?

CAC The great point in Hebrews 1 is that God has spoken in the Son, in this great Personage, and all blessing and all knowledge of God depends upon our listening to the Speaker.

Ques When it says “Heir of all things”, is that the thought of Psalm 2?

CAC In Psalm 2 He gets the ends of the earth for His possession, but “Heir of all things” goes very wide; He is appointed Heir of all things, which brings in heaven as well as earth. Everything is to be inherited by Him; as Son of God He is great enough to be Heir of all things. As Heir of all things He gets a wife; the assembly is brought in to share the inheritance with Him, and that is how we come into all the wealth of God. The wealth of God consists in the thoughts of His love, and there is One in manhood great enough to inherit that, and He has gone into death in order that those who have no personal title to inherit anything shall on a righteous ground inherit with Him. All that He takes up as the Heir He is going to share with the joint-heirs. So that the greater sense we have of His dignity the more sure we are of the immensity of the inheritance which we share with Him.

Ques How are we to understand John 13 — being in His bosom?

CAC The bosom of the Son is open to those who love Him; they can have the most intimate place; there is nothing ^[p. 54] to hinder any one of us from being there. The only thing that is wanted is love — do we love Him enough to want to be there? You may say, ‘There are things about me that would not suit that place’; well, He will serve to remove all the things that would hinder us from being there, if we want to be there. What a blessed Person He is!

Isaac is typically Christ as the only-begotten Son and the Heir, and as the One in whom all nations are to bless themselves. We can only bless ourselves in Him. He gets a wife of those who are blessed in Him. Then the thought of pre-eminence is very much presented by the Spirit in Joseph; he is seen to be pre-eminent in his father’s love; we are told Israel loved him more than all his sons, and he made him a vest of many colours. He is seen to be publicly distinguished as pre-eminent in his father’s love. We can all see how beautifully that type was worked out in the Son of God. How God delighted to put distinction upon Him — His works and His moral perfection and all the way that He carried Himself before men. The Father’s voice and the descent of the Spirit were all like a vest of many colours; they spoke of the pre-eminent place that He had in the Father’s love.

We get in Joseph the thought of a pre-eminence that is acquired. Joseph acquired by his own worth his place of pre-eminence. Now that glory is very precious in the Son of God. Joseph by the excellence of the wisdom in which he could do things rose from the lowest point to the highest, and so great was that wisdom that he became the sustainer of life for his brethren and the whole world. Now the Lord has acquired pre-eminence in the affections of His saints by the extraordinary ability and wisdom which have been disclosed in Him to meet every conceivable need on our part. That is how He becomes pre-eminent and gets His place as Head with every one of us; it is by our seeing the extraordinary wisdom with which He can give effect to every blessed thought that was in the heart of God concerning us. When we see that, we not only believe that He is Head and accept the truth of it, but He acquires that place in our affections, and I believe ^[p. 55] that is a point of the very greatest importance. Joseph’s brethren began by hating him because of his pre-eminence in the father’s love, but they ended by being subdued to accepting his pre-eminence by discovering his ability to preserve them in life; they had been absolutely shut up to him. There was no other to whom they could turn; and every one who knows what it is to have life in the name of the Son of God will say He must be pre-eminent. How could I have life in His name and not accord Him the place of pre-eminence? When the Lord fed the multitude He was giving a little presentation of His ability to satisfy men, to bring men into life. As knowing Him thus He acquires the place of pre-eminence with us all. There is no part of His glory to be known by Israel in a coming day that is hidden from the assembly today; every ray of His glory that will shine out in the kingdom or in eternity is available for the saints of the assembly, because the assembly is His fulness. If there was something of His glory that was not known in the assembly, there would be an element of His fulness wanting, but the assembly is the fulness of Him who fills all in all. That shows clearly that every part of His glory should be the conscious possession and wealth of the assembly. His future glory is seen typically in Solomon: Isaac and Joseph and Solomon are the three great types of the sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, and it is evident that in each case they are types of what He is in manhood.

Solomon is a type of Him as the One whose kingdom will be established for ever. He will be established in Jehovah’s house and kingdom for ever, and He will be Son of God in that relation. The kingdom will all be ordered, and every one of its features will be brought into being and maintained in being by One who is in the relation and dignity of Son. “I will be his father, and he shall be my son”.

Rem The Spirit seems to be specially bringing all this before us at the present time.

CAC I believe that is so, and it will lead, under the hand of God, to great enlargement in the knowledge of the ^[p. 56] Son of God. The scriptures we have read show how great this Person is. The Spirit of God is here to glorify Him, to magnify His honours and dignities to the utmost; certainly not to take anything from Him, but to invest Him with every glory that rightly belongs to Him. His glories are such that they could only attach to a divine Person; they are such that if He were not absolutely God in the fullest sense it would be a moral impossibility for them to attach to Him.

We read in Isaiah 9 that “unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given”. As the Child born He is the lowly One who did not disdain to come into the world at the lowest point of human weakness — to be born of a woman. But as the Son given He comes to be the great evidence of God’s favour to men, and to take up the government, so that divine rule may be brought in and established for ever where lawlessness has so long prevailed. The titles given here are titles of government, bringing out His ability to order everything here for the glory of God. But the Son is given: whatever greatness is bound up in the Son of God it is given to us. The great proof of the love of God to the world is that He gave His only-begotten Son. He was Himself standing there before Nicodemus when He said those blessed words that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son”. The only-begotten Son was present before the eyes of Nicodemus — the manifestation of the love of God in manhood; and we are welcome to appropriate Him in His greatness, which is expressed in His name. “His name is called Wonderful”; there is inscrutability about it; we can never fathom it. His Person is so great that no one knows Him but the Father. And then He is “Counsellor”; this sets forth the wisdom that is in Him to carry out in fulness and in permanence every thought of divine love. And He is the “Mighty God”; He is, as we have it in one of our hymns, “of full Deity possessed” (11:2). And He is the “Father of Eternity”; we love to think that the coming age is going to derive its character and its blessedness from the Son. He will impress His own character, His own parentage, upon every part of the vast scene of glory, He ^[p. 57] is the Father of Eternity. What pleasure God will have as having a Son who can bring into being, and sustain in being, a universe of bliss for His glory! And then He is the “Prince of Peace”. All these blessed and divine titles attach to Him in manhood. We could never penetrate the depths of unseen Deity, but God has been pleased to make known all that can be known of Him by creatures as bringing it within our reach in His Son in manhood. The holy secrets and the fulness of the heart of God have come to light in a Man; they are thus available to us. Most marvellous realities have taken place on the platform of the world and in time. The apostles had seen it; it was not something that took place behind the scenes in eternity, but “We have seen, and testify, that the Father has sent the Son as Saviour of the world” (1 John 4: 14). Do not let us give that up; it is vital to the very constitution of christianity that we should see the greatness of the place of the Son of God in manhood.

Proverbs 30 brings us in a certain sense to the climax of it. It is a prophecy; I do not know that there is any more remarkable prophecy in the Old Testament than the verse we read together — “What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou knowest?” That verse should have given the Jews a great subject of consideration, because it suggested that there was a Name which was as yet unrevealed. Agur knew the name Jehovah but in raising the question, “What is his name?” he suggests that there was a Name to be enquired into, to be thought of, which was as yet unknown — a Name that would only come out through the presence upon earth of the Son of God. The very fact of One being here having the name of Son brought out that the name of Father belongs to God; the very suggestion that God has a Son had wrapped up in it the making known of God as Father; if there was to be a blessed Man in the relationship of Son to God, it involved the making known of a Name that was never known before — the name of Father. That is the climax of the truth connected with the name or title of Son; it brings to light the full revelation of the blessed God as the Father. And, as we well know,

the making known of the Father’s name is linked in John 20 with the Son of God known as the ascending One. It is the Son of God as the One about to ascend who sent the wonderful message to His brethren by Mary Magdalene. That is, we get divine thoughts realised in their most lofty and heavenly character and fulness.

In Isaac we see the Lord as the risen One, in Joseph we see Him as the exalted One, in Solomon we see Him as the supreme One in the kingdom, but in Proverbs 30 we get the thought of ascension. How wonderful the thoughts of God are! How perfectly Scripture hangs together! We have, in an obscure way I admit, but definitely given by the Holy Spirit as a prophecy, the thought of One who ascends up into the heavens — who goes up to the very highest place, and who goes there because He first descended. It is remarkable that it speaks of His ascending first and then of His descending; the One who ascended could only do so because He first descended. The whole truth of His divine personality is there. He came down in a marvellous descent of infinite love, and brought all that belonged to heaven with Him — He went to the cross and was offered up, and as risen then He ascended up where He was before. The greatness of His person comes out in that He could descend, and then ascend up where He was before. We read all the Lord’s history here in the light of this. He was from above, and is therefore “above all” (John 3). And as the ascending One He made known to His brethren the most exalted name of God, the most affectionate Name that was ever made known to men. He can bring the Father’s name to us, and put it in our hearts, and make it by the Spirit the spring of affectionate response now and throughout eternity; the greatness of the Son comes out in His ability to do this.

Ques What is life in John?

CAC If we get the blessed Son of God before our hearts in His wonderful character and dignity we shall know something of what life is. “These are written that ye may ^[p. 59] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name” (John 20: 31). This glorious Person is definitely given to us as an Object of faith and love, and as He becomes our Object we have life in His name; we live in all that which He has brought to us as the blessed gift of God.