GOD’S WAY AND GOD’S END
I wish, dear brethren, to speak of God’s way and God’s end. The Lord is bringing the end much before us, not so much the end which will be reached in the eternal day, but rather the end which is to be reached in the service of God in the assembly now. If we get some sense of the end that is before God, and we are helped to contemplate the way by which that end is reached, it will greatly promote the spirit of worship, and add enrichment to it. I suppose we might say that the end that God has in view is that He should find pleasure in having the sons of men before Him in an order of manhood wholly according to His own desire, and with intelligent appreciation of His own glory and blessedness, with the ability and liberty in known nearness and relationship to respond to that glory. That, I believe, is the end which is before the heart of the blessèd God. He desires to be surrounded with an innumerable company of those able to appreciate fully what He is, in so far as He may be known by the creature, and who find their happiness in responding to Him in appreciation of all the varied lights in which divine glory is to be known.
Now Proverbs 8 speaks of the beginning of God’s way. Wisdom says, “Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old”, the idea being, I understand, that God, having a definite end before His mind, committed Himself to wisdom, in the reaching of that end, before He began any operations. Before He commenced any works, the whole matter, so to speak, was thought out in wisdom; and then, having committed Himself to wisdom, He begins to operate to reach the end that He has in mind. “His way”, I believe, suggests a divinely ordered sequence of operations by which God reaches the end that He has in mind. If we contemplate God’s way, and see how un-diverted He has been in it, working in wisdom and with method from beginning to end, it will greatly enhance our appreciation of divine glory. So one desires help from the Lord to touch on certain outstanding features of God’s way, bearing in mind that His way sub-serves the end that He has in view.
The first feature in His way would be creation. It says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1: 1); that is to say, He brought into existence by almighty power the sphere in which He would work out His thoughts. We know that disaster came in between the time spoken of in the first verse of the book of Genesis and that of the second verse, but that only provided occasion for God to show in His subsequent operations, by way of testimony, how He would operate in the moral and spiritual sphere to bring order out of chaos, and life out of death, and so on; but the first great feature that I see in the divine way is creation.
One would pass on then to the great fact of the incarnation. There was much that came in between the creation and the incoming of Christ which would well repay consideration, as to what part it plays in the way of God, but one desires to speak for a moment on the incarnation and all that results from it for the blessed God. You remember how the angels spoke to the shepherds, announcing the incoming of Christ, and said, “This is the sign to you: ye shall find”, not “the babe”, as in the King James’ Version—that is, he was not exactly calling attention at the moment to the Person of Jesus, but “ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger”. But then immediately the multitude of the heavenly host was suddenly heard, saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”, as though all was assured in the coming in of Christ. The glory of God was assured; God’s good pleasure in men was assured; but in divine wisdom the sign given to the shepherds was “a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger”, as though God would intimate at the outset that His mode of operation was intended to set aside completely all that the natural mind of man would boast in. His people were to accustom themselves to the idea that God would work in outward smallness, in outward weakness, and, indeed, in conditions which would suggest what would be contemptible in the eyes of men—“lying in a manger”. It is indeed part of the divine glory that God can entirely conceal the greatest things He is effecting from the natural mind of man.
So the sign given to the shepherds was that they should find a Babe. What is so small and insignificant as a Babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes and lying in a manger? He was not in outward honour at all, but at the same time the heavenly messengers, as understanding the mind of heaven, say, “Glory to God in the highest”—all was assured—“and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. There is much involved in the incarnation, but one thing I see in it among others, and that is that there was then introduced into this scene the order of manhood that God intended to have before Him eternally for His pleasure, and in which alone His thoughts can be realised. So, as we well know, the gospel of Luke engages us with the manhood of Jesus, the unique character of it, the holy character of it, and how Jesus grew up before God through every stage of human life, till at last, at the age of thirty, the heavens were opened upon Him, and there was a voice out of heaven, saying, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight”, chap 3: 22. That voice expressed the delight of God in the moral excellencies that were now under His eye in Jesus, and expressed at the same time that now there was a Man before God in the relationship of Son and owned as Son, ministering pleasure to the Father’s heart as a Son. Beloved, in that there was the guarantee that God would secure all that upon which His heart was set.
So for a moment we might go on to contemplate the scene on the mount of transfiguration, as we have it in Luke’s gospel, where we have the One who was saluted out of heaven at His baptism, now for a moment, so to speak, in His own scene. It says in Luke 9: 28, 29, “taking Peter and John and James he went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed the fashion of his countenance became different and his raiment white and effulgent”. But He was not alone. “Two men talked with him, who were Moses and Elias, who, appearing in glory”, as though God was intimating to Peter, John and James that His thought was to have men before Him after the pattern of Jesus; that He might have His pleasure in men. How fitting, how in accord with the scene Moses and Elias were! Moses, the meekest man in all the earth, who had taken on, by God’s work in him before Jesus appeared, the features of Jesus. Moses, a man who stood like a lion for the rights of God, as Jesus did; and Elijah similarly, standing alone for the rights of God on Mount Carmel, before four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred prophets of the Asherah; how in keeping they were with the scene of God’s pleasure where Jesus is!
Then, the temptation by the devil in the wilderness, only brought into greater display that now at last in Jesus God had a Man who was incorruptible. He could be tested with “every temptation”; for it says, “the devil, having completed every temptation, departed from him” (Luke 4: 13), as though every influence of evil that had been brought to bear on the first man was brought to bear on Jesus in those forty days, only to bring into relief that one great result of the incarnation, the coming into manhood of a divine Person, was that now there was a Man before God who was wholly incorruptible; a Man whose motives could be brought into the light and were seen to be wholly in accord with the blessed God. God is securing, and is going to secure, man after that order for His pleasure. We can see these steps in succession in the divine way, the second one to which I have referred being this great matter of the incarnation.
Then one desires to speak for a moment on the scripture read in John 13 which has in view the death of Christ. If creation was one great feature in the way of God, if the incarnation is another great feature in that way, there is also the great feature of redemption, and all that came to light in redemption; how God was glorified there. You notice the setting: it says, just before, that Satan entered into Judas, and he went out, the Lord having said to him, “What thou doest, do quickly”. That is, Satan now had an instrument in Judas Iscariote by which what Satan is was fully set forth. By means of that man, Judas Iscariote, there was expressed the most absolute moral depravity conceivable, and the most absolute hatred of absolute good. The nature of Satan came into expression at that moment in that man Judas Iscariote. Now in contrast to that Jesus says, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him”. The Lord is not there speaking, I understand, of Himself being glorified at the right hand of God. He is rather speaking of His being morally glorified in going down into death. It was His glory that in His death He would bring the glory of God into full display. What a contrast to the expression of evil, having its origin in Satan and its expression in Judas! There was now a Man in Jesus in whom, in death, God would be absolutely glorified. When Jesus died there was the most complete vindication of God’s holiness; His absolute abhorrence and unsparing judgment of evil; there was the assertion, the establishment, of God’s rights. There was the bringing into glorious display of divine love. It was a question of the depths to which divine love could go. Wisdom says, “When there were no depths”; she refers to a time before depths were in existence; but surely the depths came into full expression in the cross of Jesus. It is a question of the depths to which divine love could go, and the wonderful conciliation at that point of every attribute of God, and divine love shining out in its triumph through it all.
Then, dear brethren, not only was God glorified there, but the Son of man was glorified too, for it brought into display features of moral excellence in Christ; wonderful devotion to God’s holy will, wondrous love to those who were in the purpose of God. All this and much more came into expression. Not only was God glorified, but the Son of man was glorified. In a way, features that had not come fully into expression in His pathway here—though ever there—came now fully into expression when Jesus died: obedience unto death, and that the death of the cross; devotedness to God’s will at all cost to Himself; every feature of moral glory shone out at that time, both as the expression of what Jesus is, and also as the outshining of the glory of God.
Let me now pass on to the scripture in Ephesians, to speak of two more features of the divine way which I think we must take account of. One is the resurrection of Christ, which brings into evidence divine glory in a remarkable way, for it entirely shuts out man, and it entirely shuts out Satan. One has been encouraged in remembering what the Lord Himself said: “Fear not those who kill the body and after this have no more that they can do”, Luke 12: 4. Death is the limit of Satan’s power: once he has slain a saint there is no more he can do. What a comfort that is, for we know the God of resurrection, and when resurrection is before our souls we have before us a platform where the glory is entirely of God, where man is entirely excluded, for man cannot raise the dead, and Satan is entirely overcome. That is a great thing to lay hold of, that in resurrection God has brought in a power by which He will establish all His thoughts on a platform exclusive of all evil, of all that which is of the first man, a platform on which divine glory is displayed marvellously. That has come to pass before our eyes in Christ, and the same mighty power in which God wrought in Christ in raising Him from among the dead is operating towards us in order to bring us into our portion according to the mind of God.
There is yet another item in the divine way of which I would speak, and that is the exaltation of Christ, or, what goes along with it on another line, the ascension of Christ. The exaltation of Christ is spoken of in the first chapter of Ephesians. It is a question of what God has done, that He has not only raised up Christ from among the dead, but He has set Him down as a Man in the highest glory conceivable, and in setting Him down in the highest place God sets forth what He intends to do for the saints. It is said in Ephesians 2: 5-7 that He “has quickened us with the Christ ... and has raised us up together, and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, that he might display in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus”. That is, the place of Christ in heaven sets forth the exceeding riches of God’s grace in regard to what He will do for the saints, that He will have men in a most elevated, exalted position before Him in complete suitability, in another Man, “in Christ Jesus”; but He will have them there in order not only that He might have His own satisfaction, but in order that He might display what He is capable of doing, “the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus”.
Along with that goes also the thought of ascension, which is Christ’s own act. “I ascend” (John 20: 17), He says, speaking in His own right, and of His own power, “to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”. It is, as it were, the final act in that great service of Christ in bringing in for the Father’s pleasure what His heart would delight in. So He says, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God”, as bringing His brethren into the most favoured position in which God delights to have the sons of men, in order that the Father’s heart might be fully gratified according to the greatness of His own thoughts.
Well, dear brethren, these things, I believe, will repay consideration, these definite outstanding steps in the divine way: creation, incarnation, redemption, resurrection, exaltation or ascension—all these are outstanding features of the divine way by which God is reaching His end. But then, so far, all that one has been speaking of is outside of ourselves; that is to say, it is all objective. But there is another outstanding feature in the divine way, and that is the incoming of the Holy Spirit—a marvellous thing to take account of! The incarnation is a wonderful expression of divine wisdom, an expression of marvellous grace; but the incoming of the Holy Spirit is also marvellous—the coming in of another divine Person, content to serve absolutely unselfishly, coming in as power in the saints in order that we might take up in consciousness and power all that divine love has purposed for us. What could there be on our side apart from the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit enables us to delight in Christ; He enables us to repudiate the man that God has entirely rejected, and to delight in the Man who is before God; and as the Spirit’s work proceeds, we ourselves are formed by the power of God after that Man. The Spirit of God gives us understanding, and becomes in us the “Spirit of adoption”; the power for the consciousness of the relationship into which we are brought, to respond to the Father in the holy liberty of sons, as He so delights. So even now, by the Spirit, we learn from Christ how to say, “Abba, Father”, partaking in the same holy affections in confident movement Godward, and expressing ourselves in the same holy way toward the Father as that in which Christ Himself speaks as a Man. What could be more delightful to the heart of God? And all this is produced by the coming in of the Holy Spirit—a remarkable, essential part of the divine way by which God reaches His end.
And, dear brethren, the Spirit remains with us to the end. The Spirit will not cease His service until the divine end is fully reached. It says that He is here as the Spirit of truth—a most comforting thought in the presence of all the untruth there is in the world, in the presence of all Satan’s activities to corrupt and nullify the truth. We have with us the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who will guide us, it says, into all the truth. Just as the saints embrace the light that God gives, so the Spirit will lead on to something further, for He will not cease His service till the divine end is fully reached: He will guide us into all the truth. I know of nothing more encouraging in days of apostasy, in days when we are conscious of the power of evil against the truth, than to realise that we have with us the Comforter, a divine Person, the Spirit of truth; and in His service in this capacity to the beloved saints the Lord says of Him, “he shall not speak from himself”—a marvellous truth!—“but whatsoever he shall hear he shall speak”, John 16: 13. The Spirit is here in that wonderful dependent attitude, never speaking from Himself, dependent on the Lord on high for the words He shall speak—a marvellous thing to contemplate; the power by which, surely, the Lord would operate in any who serve in whatever small degree. But if the Spirit is here in that attitude, not speaking from Himself, but speaking what He hears, how it becomes all who would desire to take up the work of the ministry in any degree to see that they are moving on the same lines. Only on these lines can we be assured of divine support to further the divine end. If we are content, dear brethren, to move on those lines we may in our measure be fellow-workers with God.
One cannot enlarge on these things; one can only bring them before you, dear brethren, suggestively, as indicating a line of thought which will tend to enrich us in our appreciation of the blessed God. When we come on to the line of divine purpose, we know that that is entirely apart from any question of sin. But in the wisdom of the divine way God has permitted that sin should come in, that moral questions should be involved, and that we should be involved in them, in order that in our extrication we might learn features of the divine glory which we could never have known otherwise: the feature of divine wisdom in the incarnation of Christ, the feature of divine love in the death of Christ—the depths to which love could go—and the feature of divine power in the resurrection of Christ. All these and much more are elements in the divine glory which we learn by reason of the fact that, in divine wisdom, evil has been allowed to come in, and we ourselves to be involved in it. Even thus have we become enriched with depth of feeling in the knowledge of the blessed God, as learning the way He has come in, extricating us from the position in which we were; accomplishing His own purpose, and giving us a place in Christ according to His eternal thoughts.
In the scripture in Chronicles we read that “it came to pass when the trumpeters and singers were as one”. That is, I believe, what God would bring us to in assembly, that we should be as one. The Spirit has a great part in that. “In the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body” (1 Cor 12: 13)—a thing, I am sure, we all need help upon, to learn how to merge in the power of the Spirit in one body, so that we move together as one. But here in this scripture it is contemplated that that is fully known and understood, and as the divine glory, as apprehended in Christ, is before the hearts of the saints, they move as one, with one voice, to celebrate God, and He reaches His end. It says that when that took place, “Then the house, the house of Jehovah, was filled with a cloud, and the priests could not stand to do their service because of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah had filled the house of God”. God, so to speak, has reached His end. He takes possession, as has often been said, of the whole scene as delightful to Him. He has the sons of men before Him in unity of heart in appreciation, in a spirit of worship of the blessed God; and God, having secured that, graces the whole scene with His presence, so that there is a realisation of what it means for God to be all in all.
One has often thought, dear brethren, in this connection, of the throne that Solomon made—the throne of ivory overlaid with pure gold, the ivory suggesting to us what is permanent, and the pure gold the expression of divine glory. It is, I believe, a suggestion of God Himself as supreme in the outshining of His glory, the throne dominating, so to speak, the whole scene. It says, there were six steps to the throne. I do not think that means there are literally six steps: it is to suggest an ordered, complete way, by which the divine end is reached; but there were six steps, and on each step there were two lions, reminding us that as the lion turneth not away for any, so God has pursued His way, not turning away, so to speak, for any. Rather the efforts of the enemy to thwart have only brought to light that God could not be turned away for any. There was apparently the activity of an enemy after God created the heavens and the earth; there came in chaos and darkness, but it only served, as one said before, to give opportunity for God to show typically, by way of testimony, how He would move in the moral and spiritual sphere to glorify Himself, in bringing order out of chaos, and life out of death.
Then we know how Satan sought, when Christ was born, to slay the man-child; but God saw to it that the child was protected. God went on with His way. He could not be turned away for any. Satan might seek to mar in the temptation, but it only brought to light that he was a defeated enemy, and God was going right through with His way. We know how Satan, as having failed to turn aside the Lord Jesus, sought to overcome Him by all that He brought to bear upon Him in Gethsemane, and by the hands of man at the cross, but it only brought to light that God was there, not turning away for any—that there was in Jesus One who would go right through. So at every point we may see the efforts of the enemy to thwart God in His way, but they have only brought to light that God is going on with His way. Perhaps nowhere is it more seen than in the history of Christendom, in which, in a deliberate, organised way, the Spirit of God has been set aside, but we are living in days when God has wrought wondrously to recover His saints in the practical recognition of the Holy Spirit; and in that recognition every thought God has in His mind is being reached among His saints. Thus we can see that from the beginning God has been pursuing one ordered way to one definite end, and has been turned aside by no one. So Solomon’s throne had a footstool, suggesting to us that the only attitude that befits us in the presence of such an outshining of the divine glory is to bow down in worship in the presence of such a God. “Let us worship at his footstool”, Ps 132: 7. What God is looking for is that the hearts of the saints may be filled with worship in the sense of His own blessedness, and I believe a contemplation of His end and the way by which He is reaching it will serve to promote this. God grant it may be so!
BIRMINGHAM
June 1938
From Ministry of James Taylor—Old Series, vol 141
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