CHRIST’S LONGINGS ANSWERED
J. N. Grace
1 Corinthians 11: 26; 2 Corinthians 4: 11; Revelation 3: 8–11
I have thought recently, beloved brethren, that we can well do with some stimulation as to the coming of the Lord. I have observed that it is not as much spoken of as it should be. It should be the hope of our hearts that we are waiting for Him. It is said of some of our early brethren that they “turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to await his Son from the heavens”, 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10. If we were to speak in the language of the parable of the bridegroom we might well say, ‘He is on His way’. That is something to think about, and to govern our affections. His coming is near— how near, we could say. It is not just the fact of His coming, but who is coming. I wonder whether love for Christ has so gripped our hearts that we want Him? We miss Him and we want Him at the Supper. He is absent from this scene. He has gone out by way of death, and we want Him; we miss Him. What it will be when He comes! The creation groans—the bondage will be lifted; the sorrows and the sufferings will be over; the present condition of christendom, as our brother has said, finished with. How we long for that! But I wonder how much we think of what the Lord is looking for; whether we can furnish what is attractive to the Lord, that which caused Him to say in the word to Philadelphia, “I come quickly”, Revelation 3: 11. Would we not like to furnish the Lord with what will meet the longings of His heart? And what will meet them save to see Himself over again?
Our minds revert to the prime type of the assembly in Genesis 2 and the Lord saying, in type, “This time ...”. Every living creature had come under Adam’s eye, but when he saw Eve he said, “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh”, he saw himself, as it has been said, over again. I am sure that is what the Lord is after. I think it was there in Philadelphia, and therefore He says, “I make them ... know that I have loved thee”. What is it the Lord loves? He loves what is of Himself, and so He looks down at the Supper and sees a few gathered; they miss Him. They are thankful indeed for the forgiveness of their sins; thankful for salvation experienced in the testimony, for deliverance from the world and from the flesh and all that stands related to that order of things, but, more than that, He finds hearts that miss Him and want Him. You see the breathing of it in Mr. Darby’s hymns; his heart longed for Christ, and I think our hearts may well be stimulated, dear brethren, to long a little more for Him, not just for the relief so far as we are concerned, but for the great Lover of our souls, to be with Him and like Him, but to furnish Him with what He has long sought in the affection of the assembly.
So I read the passage in 2 Corinthians 4: 11 because that is exactly what it is—“That the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh”. It is a wonderful thing that the life of Jesus can come out in expression in our bodies here, in the condition in which we are of mortal flesh. So He sees the brethren come up to the prayer meeting, and what does He see?
Our brother has been speaking of persevering in prayer. What did He see when they came up at Philippi? What did He see in that prison when Paul and Silas, under the sufferings of the lash, their backs smitten, lifted up their voice and in praying were praising? He saw Himself over again—the praying Man. What did He see in Stephen as he died and lifted up his voice to the Lord and said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”? What that must have meant to the heart of Christ, to see His own features coming to light, the work of the Spirit. We have it too in Philippians 1: 19, where Paul says, “I know that this shall turn out to me to salvation, through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ”—what a reflection of Christ—not only a reflection, it is Christ over again really; that is what came to light in the assembly at Philippi; through suffering, through pressure, but through the formation of the Spirit, the very spirit of Christ came into expression.
Well, that is Philadelphia, whether it be in prayer, or in testimony, and if the life of Jesus is seen in our mortal flesh, then it will be that something of the radiancy that is in His face will shine in us. Maybe we are rejected; maybe others will not have anything to do with us. Does it affect the fact that our faces are going to shine anyway? We are going to maintain the spirit of the new covenant; we are going to show the radiancy of the glory that shines in the face of Jesus now. So the Spirit is in us down here not only that we go through in victory, but I think that what He is after is to see worked out in expression in the beloved saints what is of Christ Himself, the life of Jesus seen in our mortal flesh.
Now that is what is going to attract the Lord. I think that is what He saw in Philadelphia, which, it has been said, He will credit to the whole assembly. We are not thinking just of ourselves, but it can work out in the twos and threes, the life of Jesus. He says, “I know thy works—behold, I have set before thee an opened door”. There is
the service of God on the one hand and then the keeping of His word and not denying His name, meaning that the service of God and the testimony go on together. It means so much to the Lord, the keeping of His word, that He says, “I will cause that they shall ... know that I have loved thee”; it is not only that He loves what they had done, but “I have loved thee”. I think that is as the assembly has come to love Christ, and He has seen Himself over again in the assembly, and He says, “I have loved thee”, and He wants the assembly. I think that is why He says in this section, “I come quickly”. Speaking reverently, He will not hold Himself back. He says, ‘That is what I want, and that is what I am going to rapture’. Can we furnish the Lord, in the setting in which we are, with features that are so attractive to Him that He will come quickly? If He does not immediately rapture us He will come by His word; He will come at the Supper; He will come into our households; but what more could we enjoy than the sense of the Lord’s approval, that as He comes there is something that He has longed for and has found?
Word in meeting for ministry, Melbourne
12 December 1978