GOD BRINGING THINGS TO AN ISSUE
F.E.Raven
I desire to bring before you the way that God has taken to bring everything on earth to an issue. This was bound to be the case. At the close of this chapter Jesus says "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him". All is thus brought to an issue; that is, on the one hand there is everlasting life, and on the other the wrath of God. This will become more manifest at the Lord's coming, but for us all is seen now. The Lord says "Now is the judgment of this world", John 12: 31. That really means that all is brought to an issue. He that believeth not is already condemned because he hath not believed in the name of the onlybegotten Son of God. His coming brought all to an issue as regards the Jew, for God had been going on with a nation which had certain national and religious privileges until the advent of the Son of God into the world. On the one hand eternal life was there in the Son of God, and on the other there was the wrath of God on the one not subject to the Son. This is exemplified at the present time in the Jews. They were not subject to the Son of God, and they are now under the wrath and curse of God. They are a byword to every nation in the world and they will not be nationally relieved of this until the coming of the Lord. The wrath of God is a reality here in the world.
I will speak first about the way God has taken to bring things to an issue. Light has come into the world and all are tested by it. We read in chapter 1: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (v 18). And in chapter 3: "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life". And then is explained the secret of it all: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". The Lord goes back to the source of it all in the love of God "God so loved" - but what was the position of man? Man was entirely away from God without any possibility of reaching Him. There is a very solemn word in Genesis: God "drove out the man" (chap 3: 24); he was under the sentence of death. He was driven out from the place that God frequented, with death upon him, and there was no possibility of his getting back to God.
All God's dealings recorded in the Old Testament with Abel, Enoch, Moses, David and others, were in view of Christ. So with Israel; nor could God have dealt with them as He did on any other ground. There was no power of recovery in man. The wisdom of God came in to establish in due time a point of contact where all men might touch God, for the truth was that God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. The love of God was not a sentiment. He gave effect to it by establishing a point of contact available for every man.
The only-begotten Son is now the Head of every man, and God has given all things into His hand. But in order that this point of contact might be established He must take up men's liabilities; in other words, must accomplish redemption. Men crucified Him as a malefactor, but He was really lifted up vicariously that He might be available for all. He entered into all that lay on man by God's judgment. He gave Himself a ransom for all. The Jew was under the curse; all men were under death; Christ became the propitiation for the sins of the Jew, and not for theirs only but for the whole world. He was made a curse for the Jew and He died for all. He thus became the point of contact between God and men.
But God does not stop there. He speaks of the believer having everlasting life. I do not think one can have everlasting life at the present time without having entered the holiest. The reign of death has not yet come to an end outwardly; hence we do not have eternal life set forth publicly in the world. Christ is the true God and eternal life, and when the veil of providences is set aside in the coming age, eternal life will be manifest. Christ will come out as the true God and eternal life. The present is the time for going in, and that is by the Spirit of God. He who does not go in now does not enter into privilege. In the time to come all blessing will depend on Christ coming out, but now our privilege is in going in. Where do you go into? You go into where Christ came from. He came from God's heart, for God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son.
Not only is Christ a point of contact but it is our privilege and capability by the Spirit to enter into the secret of the love of God, to where Christ came from. The only way we can enter in is by the Spirit; we know the love of God by the Spirit's work in us, and so we can enter in by the new and living way. Entering the holiest means that Christ having come out and accomplished redemption, we can enter in to where He came from, and I do not think we learn the Son anywhere else. You may believe God's testimony and so touch God by faith in Christ, for the point of contact is touched by faith, but when the heart is so assured of divine love that you learn the truth of the Father's love to the Son, and the Son is known in that way, you have really reached eternal life. The Son is in the love of the Father. "He that hath the Son hath life". It is by reaching the Son in the love of the Father that man, by the Spirit's power, goes in to where Christ came from. We are entitled to enter and learn in that heart of love what God's resource is; that is, His beloved Son as the sent One. He must be learned in the love of God. In the holiest of all there was the ark of the covenant and the mercy-seat. In the presence of this all distinction of Jew and Gentile vanished; the point of contact was available for "whosoever", and any one who touched that point of contact was able to enter and learn what Christ is in the Father's heart so that He can accomplish the purposes of His love. We have boldness to enter in, and boldness is connected with the knowledge of the love of God. There we come to eternal life. Christ is the Head of every man, and every man through Him may enter into the holy love of God. The position that had been is now changed. The truth now is, "God is one, and the mediator between God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all", 1 Tim 2: 5. That is very near akin to John 3, only that there we find the source in divine love. We want understanding in the wisdom of divine ways. I think it is happy to let everything connected with ourselves go, with all our frames and feelings, and go in to learn the infinite wisdom and love of divine ways.
Christ is made available in divine love for every man; nobody need be outside, anyone may avail himself of that point of contact and enter in. But all this light making known God's love could not have been found out by man, for what man by searching could find out God? Man's mind cannot rise above himself, but if God reveals Himself, the revelation becomes light to man. Christ came a light into the world. There was the revelation of what was in the heart of God for man.
Who could have told that God loved the world if God had not revealed it? The point where God is first learned is in the death of Christ. The full disclosure of God's heart came out when He was made known in self-sacrificing love. He is perfectly revealed in His disposition toward man. Light brings out the true character of everything, and God now intends to bring everything to an issue. He is effecting the complete disentanglement of good and evil. "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil", 1 John 3: 8. Hence when light came into the world it was in the way of testimony, and thus so far good and evil were disentangled. "He that doeth truth cometh to the light". We need to apprehend things from that point of view; light has come in and is the test of every one. It became a test to the Jews; they refused the light. The revelation of God brings out the pride, independency, self-sufficiency and lawlessness of man. These came out on the part of the Jew. Christ was too lowly for them. They were lawless and selfsufficient, and therefore did not believe in Him. There are those who are attracted by the light, and those who hate it, and man is not disposed to give up his arrogance and self-sufficiency for the truth. All is brought to an issue in Christ; on the one hand you get the greatest privilege and blessing - eternal life; on the other, man is exposed in the depths of his heart.
Now that Christ has come the mystery of lawlessness already works. Men stumble over the gospel in these days. But we have a perfect standard in Christ. We see meekness, gentleness, lowliness there, and by that standard can judge of man in his pride here. God brought in in Christ a perfect light by which everyone is judged, but men have loved darkness rather than light. If you accept the privilege of entering in, you learn what is in the heart of God, and then you understand the meaning of "as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4: 17) and we have boldness thus in the day of judgment, for perfect love casts out fear. Many think that they are saved from the day of judgment now by the gospel, but we are not saved from the day of judgment; we are assured regarding it by the love of God. Many Christians stop short of entering in, and if you do enter in, you discover the true character of things in the world, like the psalmist (see (Ps 73: 17) who could not understand until he went into the sanctuary; then he saw the true character of the world and the end of men in it.
Christ is the blessed standard by which everything is tested for God. The more we know the Son of God the more we know the character of things around us. God will in result refuse all that will not answer to the test, for all must be according to the holy love of God. We have our senses exercised to discern good and evil; this is in having Christ as a perfect divine standard. This is a step in God's ways which end in the complete disentanglement of good and evil. We want to apply the test in passing through this world so that we may discern the true character of everything in it.
The Son is according to the Father's love, and there is everything in the Son to beloved. All that He is as Man is worthy to be loved. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life"; he is led by the Spirit into the heart of God. "He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him". The issue is brought about, and that may well be because God has been well pleased to bring in a perfect standard. In the believer's mind these things are already brought to an issue as they will be in the ways of God in the long run.
BRIGHOUSE
29 July 1901